\u3cem\u3eAnderson v. BNSF\u3c/em\u3e: Can FELA Afford Injured Workers a Continuing Tort Claim?

Robert Anderson, Plaintiff and Appellant, and BNSF Railway, Defendant and Appellee, present three separate questions on appeal: (1) were Mr. Anderson’s Federal Employers Liability Act1 (“FELA”) claims properly barred by the statute of limitations per a jury determination; (2) should a negligent work assignment theory replace the discovery rule in cumulative injury cases; and (3) did BNSF’s council make improper arguments at trial such as to deprive Anderson of a fair trial

\u3cem\u3eState v. Zunick\u3c/em\u3e: Second Guessing a First Impression

State v. Zunick presented the Montana Supreme Court with a question of first impression: what constitutes a proper colloquy under Montana Code Annotated § 46–12–211(4), and when must the colloquy occur? This statute governs the process of when a district court judge refuses to accept the terms of a plea agreement following the entry of a guilty plea. Specifically at issue in this case is the statute’s requirement that the court allow the defendant an opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea following a deviation from the agreed-upon sentence. This note first examines how a defendant could historically withdraw a plea of guilty under Montana Code Annotated § 46–16– 105(2). Then, following an examination of the factual and procedural history in Zunick, this note analyzes how these two statutes may stand in relation to each other. However, because the Court in Zunick never addressed § 46–16–105(2), we are ultimately left in the dark as to the true understanding of how these two statutes are connected, if at all

Academic Analytics in quality assurance using organisational analytical capabilities

The combination of increased environmental complexity and greater quantities of data presents higher education with new problems. Institutions have responded by adopting business analytics approaches from the commercial sector. These approaches, applied in higher education as academic analytics or learning analytics, are designed to improve organisational and educational effectiveness. However, despite extensive research in academic analytics there is an identified need for further work in making analytics “actionable”, a problem of ‘IT in use’. Recent research in business analytics has investigated this problem using a business process orientation combined with an examination of business capabilities for analytics use. Adopting this perspective we apply it to academic analytics in the context of quality assurance, describing an outline approach to the problem of actionable academic analytics

Re-flaring of a Post-Flare Loop System Driven by Flux Rope Emergence and Twisting

In this letter, we study in detail the evolution of the post-flare loops on 2005 January 15 that occurred between two consecutive solar eruption events, both of which generated a fast halo CME and a major flare. The post-flare loop system, formed after the first CME/flare eruption, evolved rapidly, as manifested by the unusual accelerating rise motion of the loops. Through nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) models, we obtain the magnetic structure over the active region. It clearly shows that the flux rope below the loops also kept rising accompanied with increasing twist and length. Finally, the post-flare magnetic configuration evolved to a state that resulted in the second CME/flare eruption. This is an event in which the post-flare loops can re-flare in a short period of $\sim$16 hr following the first CME/flare eruption. The observed re-flaring at the same location is likely driven by the rapid evolution of the flux rope caused by the magnetic flux emergence and the rotation of the sunspot. This observation provides valuable information on CME/flare models and their prediction.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ Lette

Observations of Post-flare Plasma Dynamics during an M1.0 Flare in AR11093 by SDO/AIA

We observe the motion of cool and hot plasma in a multi-stranded post flare loop system that evolved in the decay phase of a two ribbon M1.0 class flare in AR 11093 on 7 August 2010 using SDO/AIA 304 \AA\ and 171 \AA\ filters. The moving intensity feature and its reflected counterpart are observed in the loop system at multi-temperature. The observed hot counterpart of the plasma that probably envelopes the cool confined plasma, moves comparatively faster ($\sim$34 km s$^{-1}$) to the later (29 km s$^{-1}$) in form of the spreaded intensity feature. The propagating plasma and intensity reflect from the region of another footpoint of the loop. The subsonic speed of the moving plasma and associated intensity feature may be most likely evolved in the post flare loop system through impulsive flare heating processes. Complementing our observations of moving multi-temperature intensity features in the post flare loop system and its reflection, we also attempt to solve two-dimensional ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations numerically using the VAL-IIIC atmosphere as an initial condition to simulate the observed plasma dynamics. We consider a localized thermal pulse impulsively generated near one footpoint of the loop system during the flare processes, which is launched along the magnetic field lines at the solar chromosphere. The pulse steepens into a slow shock at higher altitudes while moving along this loop system, which triggers plasma perturbations that closely exhibit the observed plasma dynamics.Comment: 23 Pages, 4 Figures, The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ

Developing Data Literacy for Data Enabled Student Success

Tapping in to the potential benefits of learning analytics requires staff and students in higher education to be proficient in data literacy. This poster reports on a project to review and identify professional development needs for learning analytics, with an emphasis on the effective use of learning data to promote student success. We report on the development of an evidence based strategy and implementation plan that addresses the skills gaps and professional development requirements of students and higher education staff who teach or lead teaching and learning enhancement. The outputs will enable upskilling of staff and also facilitate students to be more aware, and make greater use of, their own data ‘footprint’. This facilitates the development of important life skills such as self-regulation and self actualisation. In the broader institutional context, this should have the resulting impact of more widespread adoption of evidence based decisions that support student success initiatives

Machine learning and semantic analysis of in-game chat for cyber bullying

One major problem with cyberbullying research is the lack of data, since researchers are traditionally forced to rely on survey data where victims and perpetrators self-report their impressions. In this paper, an automatic data collection system is presented that continuously collects in-game chat data from one of the most popular online multi-player games: World of Tanks. The data was collected and combined with other information about the players from available online data services. It presents a scoring scheme to enable identification of cyberbullying based on current research. Classification of the collected data was carried out using simple feature detection with SQL database queries and compared to classification from AI-based sentiment text analysis services that have recently become available and further against manually classified data using a custom-built classificationclient built for this paper. The simple SQL classification proved to be quite useful at identifying some features of toxic chat such as the use of bad language or racist sentiments, however the classification by the more sophisticated online sentiment analysis services proved to be disappointing. The results were then examined for insights into cyberbullying within this game and it was shown that it should be possible to reduce cyberbullying within the World of Tanks game by a significant factor by simply freezing the player’s ability to communicate through the in-game chat function for a short period after the player is killed within a match. It was also shown that very new players are much less likely to engage in cyberbullying, suggesting that it may be a learned behaviour from other players