The BOSS system for on-line submission and assessment of computing assignments

Practical computing courses which involve significant amounts of programming continue to suffer from increasing student numbers. This makes their delivery and management more difficult to achieve effectively with the available resources. One solution to this problem is to develop methods for automating the submission and testing of student programs to support the marking effort and to enable the division of marking tasks among several individuals while ensuring consistency and rigour throughout. We have developed such methods in our system, called BOSS, and have successfully deployed different versions of it on several courses over a number of years. Here, we describe the original system and its recent enhancements, and discuss the benefits it has provided us with, both in terms of administration and in improving the learning process

The Mass Spectrum of a Static Adjoint Particle

The bound states of fermions in the adjoint representation are of interest in supersymmetric models. We investigate the energy spectrum of the simplest -- the gluino-gluon bound states -- on several lattices in the quenched approximation. We use a static approximation for the gluino propagator. We find continuum limits of the splitting between the few lowest states, with the energy difference between the two lowest states of $354 \pm 9$ MeV.Comment: 3 pages, Latex, to appear Lattice 97 proceding

The Relational Blockworld Interpretation of Non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics

We introduce a new interpretation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics (QM) called Relational Blockworld (RBW). We motivate the interpretation by outlining two results due to Kaiser, Bohr, Ulfeck, Mottelson, and Anandan, independently. First, the canonical commutation relations for position and momentum can be obtained from boost and translation operators,respectively, in a spacetime where the relativity of simultaneity holds. Second, the QM density operator can be obtained from the spacetime symmetry group of the experimental configuration exclusively. We show how QM, obtained from relativistic quantum field theory per RBW, explains the twin-slit experiment and conclude by resolving the standard conceptual problems of QM, i.e., the measurement problem, entanglement and non-locality

New York Proposed Code of Evidence: Article V, The Symposium: The New York Proposed Code of Evidence

Article V of the New York Proposed Code of Evidence sets forth the rules of evidentiary privilege. Unlike other articles of the Proposed Code, it differs significantly from its federal counterpart. Article V of the Federal Rules of Evidence consists of only rule 501, which provides that, unless otherwise required by the constitution or federal statute, privileges in federal courts are governed by the principles of the common law as they may be interpreted... in the light of reason and experience. Rule 501 further provides, however, that questions of privilege in civil cases as to which state law supplies the rule of decision will be governed by state law. Thus, an examination of Article V of the New York Proposed Code is useful not only because of its significance in state cases, but also because of its relevance to federal diversity cases