9,716 research outputs found
Academic Support at Leeds Metropolitan Library
Leeds Metropolitan’s Library Academic Support Stream is made up of Academic Librarians and Information Services Librarians who provide academic support to the university’s six faculties. The team use innovative methods of working together to engage students and enhance their experience. The team only formed a year ago so this is a good time to reflect on our success so far. The library service at Leeds Met is continually developing and offers new challenges and opportunities for staff providing library academic support. Innovation has even become part of our new name – ‘Libraries and Learning Innovation’. We still offer all the traditions types of library academic support, but there is an increasing emphasis on finding innovative ways of supporting students and publicising what we can offer. This year the Library Academic Support Stream won a University Attitude Character and Talents Award for Future Focus
The evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots: three years' evidence: a quantitative evaluation
This is the third report of the longitudinal quantitative evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) pilots and the first since the government announced that EMA is to be rolled out nationally from 2004. The evaluation was commissioned in 1999, by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) from a consortium of research organisations, led by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) and including the National Centre for Social Research, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling (NICEC).
The statistical evaluation design is a longitudinal cohort study involving large random sample surveys of young people (and their parents) in 10 EMA pilot areas and eleven control areas. Two cohorts of young people were selected from Child Benefit records. The first cohort of young people left compulsory schooling in the summer of 1999 and they, and their parents, were interviewed between October 1999 and April 2000 (Year 12 interview). A second interview was carried out with these young people between October 2000 and April 2001 (Year 13 interview). The second cohort left compulsory education the following summer of 2000 and young people, and their parents, were first interviewed between October 2000 and April 2001.
The report uses both propensity score matching (PSM) and descriptive techniques, each of which brings their own particular strengths to the analysis
A smart environment for biometric capture
The development of large scale biometric systems require experiments to be performed on large amounts of data. Existing capture systems are designed for fixed experiments and are not easily scalable. In this scenario even the addition of extra data is difficult. We developed a prototype biometric tunnel for the capture of non-contact biometrics. It is self contained and autonomous. Such a configuration is ideal for building access or deployment in secure environments. The tunnel captures cropped images of the subject's face and performs a 3D reconstruction of the person's motion which is used to extract gait information. Interaction between the various parts of the system is performed via the use of an agent framework. The design of this system is a trade-off between parallel and serial processing due to various hardware bottlenecks. When tested on a small population the extracted features have been shown to be potent for recognition. We currently achieve a moderate throughput of approximate 15 subjects an hour and hope to improve this in the future as the prototype becomes more complete
First excitations in two- and three-dimensional random-field Ising systems
We present results on the first excited states for the random-field Ising
model. These are based on an exact algorithm, with which we study the
excitation energies and the excitation sizes for two- and three-dimensional
random-field Ising systems with a Gaussian distribution of the random fields.
Our algorithm is based on an approach of Frontera and Vives which, in some
cases, does not yield the true first excited states. Using the corrected
algorithm, we find that the order-disorder phase transition for three
dimensions is visible via crossings of the excitations-energy curves for
different system sizes, while in two-dimensions these crossings converge to
zero disorder. Furthermore, we obtain in three dimensions a fractal dimension
of the excitations cluster of d_s=2.42(2). We also provide analytical droplet
arguments to understand the behavior of the excitation energies for small and
large disorder as well as close to the critical point.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure
Hysterectomy, endometrial destruction, and levonorgestrel releasing intrauterine system (Mirena) for heavy menstrual bleeding : systematic review and meta-analysis of data from individual patients
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Collective Transport in Arrays of Quantum Dots
(WORDS: QUANTUM DOTS, COLLECTIVE TRANSPORT, PHYSICAL EXAMPLE OF KPZ)
Collective charge transport is studied in one- and two-dimensional arrays of
small normal-metal dots separated by tunnel barriers. At temperatures well
below the charging energy of a dot, disorder leads to a threshold for
conduction which grows linearly with the size of the array. For short-ranged
interactions, one of the correlation length exponents near threshold is found
from a novel argument based on interface growth. The dynamical exponent for the
current above threshold is also predicted analytically, and the requirements
for its experimental observation are described.Comment: 12 pages, 3 postscript files included, REVTEX v2, (also available by
anonymous FTP from external.nj.nec.com, in directory /pub/alan/dotarrays [as
separate files]) [replacement: FIX OF WRONG VERSION, BAD SHAR] March 17,
1993, NEC
Shot Noise of Single-Electron Tunneling in 1D Arrays
We have used numerical modeling and a semi-analytical calculation method to
find the low frequency value S_{I}(0) of the spectral density of fluctuations
of current through 1D arrays of small tunnel junctions, using the ``orthodox
theory'' of single-electron tunneling. In all three array types studied, at low
temperature (kT << eV), increasing current induces a crossover from the
Schottky value S_{I}(0)=2e to the ``reduced Schottky value''
S_{I}(0)=2e/N (where N is the array length) at some crossover current I_{c}.
In uniform arrays over a ground plane, I_{c} is proportional to exp(-\lambda
N), where 1/\lambda is the single-electron soliton length. In arrays without a
ground plane, I_{c} decreases slowly with both N and \lambda. Finally, we have
calculated the statistics of I_{c} for ensembles of arrays with random
background charges. The standard deviation of I_{c} from the ensemble average
is quite large, typically between 0.5 and 0.7 of , while the
dependence of on N or \lambda is so weak that it is hidden within the
random fluctuations of the crossover current.Comment: RevTex. 21 pages of text, 10 postscript figure
Hysterectomy, endometrial ablation, and levonorgestrel releasing intrauterine system (Mirena) for treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding : cost effectiveness analysis
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Transitions in non-conserving models of Self-Organized Criticality
We investigate a random--neighbours version of the two dimensional
non-conserving earthquake model of Olami, Feder and Christensen [Phys. Rev.
Lett. {\bf 68}, 1244 (1992)]. We show both analytically and numerically that
criticality can be expected even in the presence of dissipation. As the
critical level of conservation, , is approached, the cut--off of the
avalanche size distribution scales as . The
transition from non-SOC to SOC behaviour is controlled by the average branching
ratio of an avalanche, which can thus be regarded as an order
parameter of the system. The relevance of the results are discussed in
connection to the nearest-neighbours OFC model (in particular we analyse the
relevance of synchronization in the latter).Comment: 8 pages in latex format; 5 figures available upon reques
Thermal Rounding of the Charge Density Wave Depinning Transition
The rounding of the charge density wave depinning transition by thermal noise
is examined. Hops by localized modes over small barriers trigger
``avalanches'', resulting in a creep velocity much larger than that expected
from comparing thermal energies with typical barriers. For a field equal to the
depinning field, the creep velocity is predicted to have a {\em
power-law} dependence on the temperature ; numerical computations confirm
this result. The predicted order of magnitude of the thermal rounding of the
depinning transition is consistent with rounding seen in experiment.Comment: 12 pages + 3 Postscript figure
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