‘Being an artist you kind of, I mean, you get used to excellence’: Identity, Values and Fine Art Assessment Practices

In this article I report on a study into fine art lecturers’ assessment practices in higher education. This study explores the ways that lecturers bring themselves into the act of assessment (Hand & Clewes 2000). I interviewed twelve fine art lecturers who worked across six English universities. Lecturers were asked to relate to me how they learnt to assess student artwork and what informed their judgement making. My research explores the interfaces between fine art lecturers’ assessment practices, their values and identity/ies. My analysis offers a rendering of the ways that values underpin lecturers’ assessment practices. The article explores the ways that lecturers’ assessment decisions relate to their experiences as ex art students, their identity as artists, their own artistic practices, their conceptualisation of the arts arenas and the HE sector. My key overarching argument is that identity/ies and values underpin and enrich fine art lecturers’ assessment practices

Smooth and Strong PCPs

Probabilistically checkable proofs (PCPs) can be verified based only on a constant amount of random queries, such that any correct claim has a proof that is always accepted, and incorrect claims are rejected with high probability (regardless of the given alleged proof). We consider two possible features of PCPs: - A PCP is strong if it rejects an alleged proof of a correct claim with probability proportional to its distance from some correct proof of that claim. - A PCP is smooth if each location in a proof is queried with equal probability. We prove that all sets in NP have PCPs that are both smooth and strong, are of polynomial length, and can be verified based on a constant number of queries. This is achieved by following the proof of the PCP theorem of Arora, Lund, Motwani, Sudan and Szegedy (JACM, 1998), providing a stronger analysis of the Hadamard and Reed - Muller based PCPs and a refined PCP composition theorem. In fact, we show that any set in NP has a smooth strong canonical PCP of Proximity (PCPP), meaning that there is an efficiently computable bijection of NP witnesses to correct proofs. This improves on the recent construction of Dinur, Gur and Goldreich (ITCS, 2019) of PCPPs that are strong canonical but inherently non-smooth. Our result implies the hardness of approximating the satisfiability of "stable" 3CNF formulae with bounded variable occurrence, where stable means that the number of clauses violated by an assignment is proportional to its distance from a satisfying assignment (in the relative Hamming metric). This proves a hypothesis used in the work of Friggstad, Khodamoradi and Salavatipour (SODA, 2019), suggesting a connection between the hardness of these instances and other stable optimization problems

Height bounds and the Siegel property

Let $G$ be a reductive group defined over $\mathbb{Q}$ and let $\mathfrak{S}$ be a Siegel set in $G(\mathbb{R})$. The Siegel property tells us that there are only finitely many $\gamma \in G(\mathbb{Q})$ of bounded determinant and denominator for which the translate $\gamma.\mathfrak{S}$ intersects $\mathfrak{S}$. We prove a bound for the height of these $\gamma$ which is polynomial with respect to the determinant and denominator. The bound generalises a result of Habegger and Pila dealing with the case of $GL_2$, and has applications to the Zilber-Pink conjecture on unlikely intersections in Shimura varieties. In addition we prove that if $H$ is a subset of $G$, then every Siegel set for $H$ is contained in a finite union of $G(\mathbb{Q})$-translates of a Siegel set for $G$.Comment: 24 pages, minor revision

Composite bulkhead fabrication development

Composite bulkhead is produced by a fabrication concept utilizing vacuum and/or autoclave pressure to hold preformed welded sandwich elements in place during bonding and aging

Late-time decay of perturbations outside extremal charged black hole

We analyze the late-time decay of scalar perturbations in extremal Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime. We consider individual spherical-harmonic modes $l$ of a test massless scalar field, restricting our attention to initial data of compact support, with generic regular behavior across the horizon. We obtain a decay rate $\propto t^{-(2l+3)}$ (just like in Schwarzschild) for incident waves scattered by the black hole. However, for waves originating at the horizon's neighborhood we obtain a slightly slower decay, $\propto t^{-(2l+2)}$. We discuss relations to previous works.Comment: 24 pages. Minor correction

Lower bounds for ranks of Mumford-Tate groups

Let A be a complex abelian variety and G its Mumford--Tate group. Supposing that the simple abelian subvarieties of A are pairwise non-isogenous, we find a lower bound for the rank of G, which is a little less than log_2 dim A. If we suppose that End A is commutative, then we show that rk G >= log_2 dim A + 2, and this latter bound is sharp. We also obtain the same results for the rank of the l-adic monodromy group of an abelian variety defined over a number field. ----- Soit A une vari\'et\'e ab\'elienne complexe et G son groupe de Mumford--Tate. En supposant que les sous vari\'et\'es ab\'eliennes simples de A sont deux \`a deux non-isog\`enes, on trouve une minoration du rang rk G de G, l\'eg\`erement inf\'erieure \`a log_2 dim A. Si on suppose que End A est commutatif, alors on montre que rk G >= log_2 dim A + 2, et cette borne-ci est optimale. On obtient les m\^emes resultats pour le rang du groupe de monodromie l-adique d'une vari\'et\'e ab\'elienne d\'efinie sur un corps de nombres

Assessment and analysis of H.pylori infection treatment strategies of St. Vincent Hospital\u27s family and internal medicine clinics

Helicobacter pylori is a gram-negative bacteria that is responsible for causing chronic gastritis, ulcers in the stomach and intestine, and eventually even gastric lymphoma or cancer. Multiple treatment options have been recommended for treating an H. pylori infection based on kidney function, previous antibiotic exposure, and whether or not the infection is recurrent. The most common regimens used at St. Vincent\u27s primary care centers closely mimic the American College of Gastroenterology\u27s clinical guidelines. However, these medications (clarithromycin and levofloxacin) have been associated with high rates of resistance in other countries. The United States has very limited data on H. pylori\u27s resistance rates to these medications and there is not sufficient data to prove the efficacy of these regimens. This project aims to identify what percentage of H. pylori infections diagnosed at St. Vincent\u27s Family Medicine and Internal Medicine clinics are being successfully treated with current, guideline-directed therapy. It also aims to obtain a general understanding of H. pylori resistance rates to clarithromycin and levofloxacin in the Indianapolis area based on treatment failure rates