Profile Likelihood Biclustering

Biclustering, the process of simultaneously clustering the rows and columns of a data matrix, is a popular and effective tool for finding structure in a high-dimensional dataset. Many biclustering procedures appear to work well in practice, but most do not have associated consistency guarantees. To address this shortcoming, we propose a new biclustering procedure based on profile likelihood. The procedure applies to a broad range of data modalities, including binary, count, and continuous observations. We prove that the procedure recovers the true row and column classes when the dimensions of the data matrix tend to infinity, even if the functional form of the data distribution is misspecified. The procedure requires computing a combinatorial search, which can be expensive in practice. Rather than performing this search directly, we propose a new heuristic optimization procedure based on the Kernighan-Lin heuristic, which has nice computational properties and performs well in simulations. We demonstrate our procedure with applications to congressional voting records, and microarray analysis.Comment: 40 pages, 11 figures; R package in development at https://github.com/patperry/biclustp

Understanding the First-Year Experience of Traditional-Aged, College-Ready Students at a Private, New England Liberal Arts College

The current study’s research problem concerns the forty-year trend of college-ready, traditional-aged students stopping out of undergraduate programs across the United States. While literature concerning gender theory, the college transition, emerging adulthood, and college student development provide a foundation for considering the problem, there have been very few studies conducted concerning the FYE of this study’s participants, a set of five white cisgender males. Understanding their FYE at a substantive level will lead to further research and hopefully open pathways to increasing retention. The present study collected significant data concerning the daily experience of five students with the hope of answering three research questions: 1) How do college-ready, traditional-aged male students experience the first year of postsecondary education at a small liberal arts college in Maine? 2) How can we understand the first-year experience of college-ready, traditional-aged male students at a small liberal arts college in Maine through the lens of Tanner’s theory of recentering? and 3) What is the impact of campus support services on the experience of college-ready, traditional-aged male students in their first year at a small liberal arts college in Maine? The analysis was conducted using grounded theory and case study. The study’s conclusion is that students in transition to college who exhibit social resilience; a capacity for self-reflection; a willingness to reset priorities; and who set a tangible goal that extends beyond the first-year experience are more likely to persist beyond the first year

“Circumstantially Volatile”: A narrative study of the lived first-year experience at a New England liberal arts college

College-ready, traditional-aged undergraduate students in the United States have been stopping out at an increasingly higher rate over the last forty years. Many students stop out after the first year, which has led researchers to focus on the first-year experience (FYE) as a way of understanding the trend. While the FYE literature, complemented by research in gender theory, the college transition, emerging adulthood, and college student development provide a foundation for considering the problem, there have been very few studies concerning the FYE of white males. Understanding the FYE at a substantive level for this population will lead to further research and hopefully open pathways to increasing retention. The study at the center of this paper addressed the research question, “How do college-ready, traditional-aged male students experience the first year of postsecondary education at a small liberal arts college in Maine?” Over the course of nine months, from September 2017 to May 2018, participants responded to over forty researcher-generated text messages and engaged in three semi-structured qualitative interviews and one brief survey. Data were collected, organized through NVivo, and then expressed in narrative form. Analysis was conducted using grounded theory and case study. One participant withdrew from the college; another participant struggled significantly but persisted; and three other participants developed throughout the FYE and entered their second year confident in their ability to succeed. The study suggests that students in transition to college are more likely to persist beyond the first year if they 1) exhibit social resilience; 2) possess a capacity for self-reflection; 3) demonstrate a willingness to reset priorities; and 4) set a tangible goal that extends beyond the first year

The Market At Work

I believe my project will be the best project for me using both of my majors. It is a great way for me to take some of the knowledge I learned here at BGSU and apply it to a real life scenario I could pursue in future years. Investing at a young age is very important to help raise a lot of money for my retirement, something that I am learning right now in class. People coming out of college usually aren’t very concerned with investing at such a young age. I want to take advantage of this opportunity that is in front of me and make sure that I don’t wait to long to invest. In order to invest, I have to be knowledgeable so I don’t lose a lot of the money. Obviously for this project, I will not have a retirement plan, but this will definitely be a portion of my investments when I am older. I want to be able to learn about the stock market so I can become a “master” when I am older. This simulation will show if I should invest in the stock market or not when I graduate. If I have success or feel comfortable doing it, which I plan on executing, then I fully anticipate doing this when I am older. This project will be great practice for me and will be a great project to show a lot of information that I learned here while at BGSU

Critting The Crit

[EN] This paper critically examines the role of the standard method of assessment for architectural students internationally, known as the ‘crit’. It examines the pedagogical theory underlying this approach whereby students pin up their work and make a presentation on it, and receive verbal feedback on it, in front of a room of their peers and academic staff. Recent critiques of this hundred-year old approach are also discussed, and the reality of the ‘crit’ is examined through analysis of practice. This leads into a discussion of a semester-long piece of action research in this academic year in which academic staff have piloted new methods of formative and summative student-centred assessment without a ‘crit’. Feedback from students and academic staff has been extremely positive, and is discussed along with the lessons learned from this pilot semester. The next steps in this ongoing piece of action research are also briefly outlined.http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Flynn, P. (2018). Critting The Crit. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1307-1315. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.8195OCS1307131

Nike Marketing Strategy: A Company to Imitate

This paper takes an in depth look at how Nike became the largest company in its industry and how other companies across various industries have tried to model Nike’s plan for success. At the heart of Nike’s business plan are the company’s unique marketing strategy and culture that significantly helps foster innovation and creativity. First I will go into a brief history of the company and its most popular brand. Then an in-depth analysis will be provided of these two important pillars of success. The next part of the paper will focus on how other companies in the same industry and different industries have used similar strategies to try and improve their own profits and products

St. Brigid\u27s Nursery- Second Year Architecture

Poster with details of students\u27 project on locating a nursery school in inner city Dublin. St Brigid’s Nursery school is currently located in Mountjoy Square. The second year architecture students explored the possibility of designing a new custom built nursery school on the existing site and a number of new locations in the North East inner city. The sites were chosen in conjunction with Dublin City Councilhttps://arrow.tudublin.ie/civpostbk/1043/thumbnail.jp

Critting the Crit in the Education of Architects: From Bauhaus to Bolton Street

This investigative study is concerned with examining the current methods of assessment of architecture students in the system known as the “crit” and the associated methods of giving students feedback on their designs in a public forum. The aim of the research is to identify the main weaknesses of the crit system and to explore alternatives which perhaps would have more sustainable and transparent methods of assessment and feedback. Personal motivation for the research sprang from concerns regarding both the effectiveness of the crit from the pedagogical perspective of student learning and from concerns about it as a transparent and useful system of assessment for professional architects. Policy concerns in the research were informed by three immediate issues: an in-house concern regarding the relatively high number of examination appeals from architecture students compared to other design degrees which use a crit system, a national concern, based on the NQAI requirements that modules be expressed in terms of learning outcomes, and more global concerns for the five year undergraduate system of training architects in Europe generally arising form the preference for a three-year plus two-year degree systems manifest in the Bologna Accord. The research approach locates itself broadly within the postmodernist critical theory framework which acknowledges the complexity of the issues under study and the need for both the “distant” and the “close-up”. The research design is basically “bricolage” which allows for nonlinear exploration of discrete but related aspects of the study and which facilitates a range of researcher stances including detached interpreter, insider-intervener and dialogic commentator. A literature review, pedagogic interventions in class-based teaching and in-depth interviews with architecture graduates from DIT and other colleges were used. The research findings show a remarkably similar experience of architecture education through the crit system with broadly negative opinions on the value of the crit as a learning experience. The findings from the class-based interventions indicate that the crit systems which involves large numbers of students and staff is highly ineffective compared to small group crits and that the combination of oral and visual assessment feedback on designs is more effective than the traditional oral feedback system. The research offers a number of proposals regarding improvements to the crit system and suggest areas where further research is urgently required to make the system of assessment more effective and transparent and to ease the training system for architects toward the inevitable structural changes resulting from the Bologna Accord