Determining what materials to develop

How do you determine what materials to develop? By using a new model that is so efficient and effective, it practically guarantees the production of relevant high-quality CBE materials at the lowest possible cost. The SCID model was carefully developed to incorporate the critical tasks needed to develop the kinds of CBE curriculum and instructional materials needed to train tomorrow’s work force today. Twenty-three components—a few optional but most essential—are grouped into five phases: Curriculum analysis, Curriculum design, Instructional Development, Training Implementation, and Program Evaluation. This model has been used since 1990 to train over 1000 curriculum specialists, and training and development specialists from schools, colleges, companies, and government agencies, domestically and internationally. SCID is a process that works

Determining what to teach

Managers and supervisors in all work and educational settings need accurate job information to support data-based decision making. The DACUM (Develop A Curriculum) job/occupational analysis process has been used to conduct over 500 workshops for various educational agencies, businesses and industries, and state and federal agencies. It is a very effective, quick and low-cost process for precisely identifying the duties and tasks performed by expert workers. Most trainees are from community college, companies, and government agencies around the United States and more than 25 other countries. Given an accurate and detailed description of what experts do, a school, college, company or government agency has a solid basis for training others to do the same. One writer described DACUM as a process for “cloning your best workers.” In addition to training and curriculum development, the process provides excellent data for management decision-making, career planning, needs assessment, test development, job redesign, performance evaluations, and quality control planning

A Study of Mignon\u27s Lied in Selected Settings

The focus of this study is the various treatments given by composers to a twelve line poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The text is the common factor over which the differences of approach and treatment are laid by composers in compositions which range in time of initial publication from 1796 to 1888. The condition of the Lied immediately prior to the publication of the first of the settings is taken as the starting point, since all of the chosen settings may be classified as Lieder. The composers whose works are discussed are Karl F. Zelter, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Hugo Wolf. The method employed was a textual and musical analysis of the chosen compositions. The discussion covers the treatment of the text in respect to the alteration, deletion, repetition, and addition of words. The repetition of entire lines of the poem is also discussed. The placement of musical dramatic crises in relation to the words is covered also. The discussion of the musical aspects of the settings centers on harmonic analysis, the changing role of the piano in vocal music, changes in melodic motion, and alterations of form. The results of the study show that there are recognizable differences which reflect the general conditions of song literature at the time of the composition of the various selections and that there were various recognizable developmental trends which evolved throughout the nineteenth century

Optimizing collective fieldtaxis of swarming agents through reinforcement learning

Swarming of animal groups enthralls scientists in fields ranging from biology to physics to engineering. Complex swarming patterns often arise from simple interactions between individuals to the benefit of the collective whole. The existence and success of swarming, however, nontrivially depend on microscopic parameters governing the interactions. Here we show that a machine-learning technique can be employed to tune these underlying parameters and optimize the resulting performance. As a concrete example, we take an active matter model inspired by schools of golden shiners, which collectively conduct phototaxis. The problem of optimizing the phototaxis capability is then mapped to that of maximizing benefits in a continuum-armed bandit game. The latter problem accepts a simple reinforcement-learning algorithm, which can tune the continuous parameters of the model. This result suggests the utility of machine-learning methodology in swarm-robotics applications.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Einstein equations in the null quasi-spherical gauge III: numerical algorithms

We describe numerical techniques used in the construction of our 4th order evolution for the full Einstein equations, and assess the accuracy of representative solutions. The code is based on a null gauge with a quasi-spherical radial coordinate, and simulates the interaction of a single black hole with gravitational radiation. Techniques used include spherical harmonic representations, convolution spline interpolation and filtering, and an RK4 "method of lines" evolution. For sample initial data of "intermediate" size (gravitational field with 19% of the black hole mass), the code is accurate to 1 part in 10^5, until null time z=55 when the coordinate condition breaks down.Comment: Latex, 38 pages, 29 figures (360Kb compressed

Functional correlates of optic flow motion processing in Parkinson’s disease

The visual input created by the relative motion between an individual and the environment, also called optic flow, influences the sense of self-motion, postural orientation, veering of gait, and visuospatial cognition. An optic flow network comprising visual motion areas V6, V3A, and MT+, as well as visuo-vestibular areas including posterior insula vestibular cortex (PIVC) and cingulate sulcus visual area (CSv), has been described as uniquely selective for parsing egomotion depth cues in humans. Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have known behavioral deficits in optic flow perception and visuospatial cognition compared to age- and education-matched control adults (MC). The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate neural correlates related to impaired optic flow perception in PD. We conducted fMRI on 40 non-demented participants (23 PD and 17 MC) during passive viewing of simulated optic flow motion and random motion. We hypothesized that compared to the MC group, PD participants would show abnormal neural activity in regions comprising this optic flow network. MC participants showed robust activation across all regions in the optic flow network, consistent with studies in young adults, suggesting intact optic flow perception at the neural level in healthy aging. PD participants showed diminished activity compared to MC particularly within visual motion area MT+ and the visuo-vestibular region CSv. Further, activation in visuo-vestibular region CSv was associated with disease severity. These findings suggest that behavioral reports of impaired optic flow perception and visuospatial performance may be a result of impaired neural processing within visual motion and visuo-vestibular regions in PD.Published versio

Rapid Oscillations in Cataclysmic Variables. XV. HT Camelopardalis (= RX J0757.0+6306)

We present photometry and spectroscopy of HT Camelopardalis, a recently discovered X-ray-bright cataclysmic variable. The spectrum shows bright lines of H, He I, and He II, all moving with a period of 0.059712(1) d, which we interpret as the orbital period. The star's brightness varies with a strict period of 515.0592(2) s, and a mean full amplitude of 0.11 mag. These properties qualify it as a /bona fide/ DQ Herculis star (intermediate polar) -- in which the magnetism of the rapidly rotating white dwarf channels accretion flow to the surface. Normally at V=17.8, the star shows rare and very brief outbursts to V=12-13. We observed one in December 2001, and found that the 515 s pulse amplitude had increased by a factor of ~100 (in flux units). A transient orbital signal may also have appeared.Comment: PDF, 19 pages, 3 tables, 6 figures; accepted, in press, to appear June 2002, PASP; more info at http://cba.phys.columbia.edu

Rigid motion revisited: rigid quasilocal frames

We introduce the notion of a rigid quasilocal frame (RQF) as a geometrically natural way to define a "system" in general relativity. An RQF is defined as a two-parameter family of timelike worldlines comprising the worldtube boundary of the history of a finite spatial volume, with the rigidity conditions that the congruence of worldlines is expansion-free (constant size) and shear-free (constant shape). This definition of a system is anticipated to yield simple, exact geometrical insights into the problem of motion in general relativity. It begins by answering the questions what is in motion (a rigid two-dimensional system boundary), and what motions of this rigid boundary are possible. Nearly a century ago Herglotz and Noether showed that a three-parameter family of timelike worldlines in Minkowski space satisfying Born's 1909 rigidity conditions has only three degrees of freedom instead of the six we are familiar with from Newtonian mechanics. We argue that in fact we can implement Born's notion of rigid motion in both flat spacetime (this paper) and arbitrary curved spacetimes containing sources (subsequent papers) - with precisely the expected three translational and three rotational degrees of freedom - provided the system is defined quasilocally as the two-dimensional set of points comprising the boundary of a finite spatial volume, rather than the three-dimensional set of points within the volume.Comment: 10 pages (two column), 24 pages (preprint), 1 figur

Predictors and outcomes of crossover to surgery from physical therapy for meniscal tear and osteoarthritis a randomized trial comparing physical therapy and surgery

BACKGROUND: Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) combined with physical therapy (PT) have yielded pain relief similar to that provided by PT alone in randomized trials of subjects with a degenerative meniscal tear. However, many patients randomized to PT received APM before assessment of the primary outcome. We sought to identify factors associated with crossing over to APM and to compare pain relief between patients who had crossed over to APM and those who had been randomized to APM. METHODS: We used data from the MeTeOR (Meniscal Tear in Osteoarthritis Research) Trial of APM with PT versus PT alone in subjects ≥45 years old who had mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis and a degenerative meniscal tear. We assessed independent predictors of crossover to APM among those randomized to PT. We also compared pain relief at 6 months among those randomized to PT who crossed over to APM, those who did not cross over, and those originally randomized to APM. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-four subjects were randomized to and received APM and 177 were randomized to PT, of whom 48 (27%) crossed over to receive APM in the first 140 days after randomization. In multivariate analyses, factors associated with a higher likelihood of crossing over to APM among those who had originally been randomized to PT included a baseline Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) Pain Score of ≥40 (risk ratio [RR] = 1.99; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00, 3.93) and symptom duration of <1 year (RR = 1.74; 95% CI = 0.98, 3.08). Eighty-one percent of subjects who crossed over to APM and 82% of those randomized to APM had an improvement of ≥10 points in their pain score at 6 months, as did 73% of those who were randomized to and received only PT. CONCLUSIONS: Subjects who crossed over to APM had presented with a shorter symptom duration and greater baseline pain than those who did not cross over from PT. Subjects who crossed over had rates of surgical success similar to those of the patients who had been randomized to surgery. Our findings also suggest that an initial course of rigorous PT prior to APM may not compromise surgical outcome. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence