Student experiences of peer review marking of team projects

Peer review of students is a partial response to critics of group work who cite drawbacks of "free riders" and de-motivation. It is often used to motivate and focus students on their own development within a group work setting. Pressures of time, budget and student numbers often obviate deeper study of alternative assessment techniques. The study reported in this paper, made possible by an HEA grant, allowed for analysis of a peer review mechanism that had been operating for a number of years alongside a new web-based system. The paper reviews criticisms of peer review techniques in existing literature and outlines how student experiences of peer review were researched. Qualitative outcomes are discussed alongside an analysis of quantitative data from the systems used. Key conclusions from this research are that the data collection method made no significant difference to the reported student experiences of peer review or to the peer review marks. The findings update and strengthen previous literature and provide important new insights into the emotional perspective of students. The findings from this research are being used to aid development of the webbased system and to establish 'good practice' guidance on the deployment of this valuable and innovative technique

Laser angle sensor

A laser angle measurement system was designed and fabricated for NASA Langley Research Center. The instrument is a fringe counting interferometer that monitors the pitch attitude of a model in a wind tunnel. A laser source and detector are mounted above the model. Interference fringes are generated by a small passive element on the model. The fringe count is accumulated and displayed by a processor in the wind tunnel control room. This report includes optical and electrical schematics, system maintenance and operation procedures

Remtech SSME nozzle design TPS

Thermal damage to the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) aft manifold Thermal Protection System (TPS) has been observed for flights STS-8 through STS-13. This damaged area is located on the ME2 and ME3 and extends over a region of approximately one square foot. Total failure or burn-through of the TPS could lead to severe thermal damage of the SSME manifold and loss of an engine nozzle necessitating nozzle replacement causing significant schedule delays and cost increases. Thermal damage to the manifold can be defined as a situation where the manifold temperature becomes greater than 1300 F; thereby causing loss of heat treatment in the nozzle. Results of Orbiter/nozzle wind tunnel tests and Hot Gas Facility tests of the TPS are presented. Aerothermal and thermal analysis models for the SSME aft manifold are discussed along with the flight predictions, design trajectory and design environment. Finally, the TPS design concept and TPS thermal response are addressed

Challenges & Rewards with an Institutional Repository

UVM Libraries launched ScholarWorks @ UVM in 2013 to collect, preserve and disseminate scholarly works of faculty, students as well as make collections, reports and other materials more discoverable and available.This institutional repository has grown to over twenty collections, comprising of student dissertations and theses, public health projects, historic botanical research, Vermont history, faculty publications and more.Challenges include varied participation across campus, impacting work flow in library positions, and adding another library service.Author’s works enjoy increased discoverability from all over the world, from low income countries to individuals that seek information without the benefit of library resources. IRs support libraries’ intellectual mission

Grain Boundary Structures in f.c.c, and b.c.c. Metals and Sites for Segregated Impurities

The key features leading to low-energy grain boundaries in metals are discussed by reference to computer-simulated structures and geometrical analysis in terms of atom packing. Low energy is found to be associated with boundary structures consisting of relatively dense packing, and this can in turn be expressed in terms of the space-filling packing of coordination polyhedra. The geometrical method of analysis is shown to be well suited to the identification of interfacial sites for segregated impurities

Dispersing agents prevent negative impact of oil on uptake of sinc by duckweed (Lemna minor)

Oil spills have had extremely negative effects upon the environment, affecting both animal and plant species living in and around the contaminated water. It is known that the oil can interfere with certain plant and animal functions, potentially causing death. Means developed to remove the oil from the water include physical methods such as skimmers and chemical approaches such as adsorbents and dispersants. In the cases of the chemical treatments, some people question whether the remedy may also cause problems. Here, we confirm that the aquatic duckweed plant (Lemna) can take up zinc from its environment and show that oil in the water will inhibit that uptake. Further, we demonstrate that the negative affect the oil has upon zinc uptake by duckweed can be ameliorated by treatment with a dispersant and that the dispersant itself does not inhibit zinc uptake by duckweed. We conclude that, treatment of oil contaminated water by dispersant may be a good method to clean up the water

Preeminence of Lesser Splanchnic Blood Flow in Selected Patients With Generalized Portal Hypertension

Although restricted transhepatic portal flow is necessary for development of generalized portal hypertension (GPH), increased splanchnic arterial inflow also contributes to GPH and its clinical sequelae. In this context, we describe 7 male and 6 female patients (mean age 48 years) in whom the lesser splanchnic (gastrosplenic) system played a key role in the signs and symptoms of GPH. These 13 patients (9 with hepatic cirrhosis, 3 with primary myeloproliferative disorder, and 1 with extrahepatic portal block) shared common features of massive splenomegaly, huge splenofundic gastric varices, often with a prominent natural shunt to the left renal vein. Total or near total splenectomy alone or combined where appropriate with coronary vein ligation was effective in controlling varix hemorrhage (10 patients), ascites (3), or complications of an enlarged spleen-anorexia and abdominal pain (3), hemolytic anemia (1) and profound thrombocytopenia with severe epistaxis (1). Intraoperative jejunal portal venography was crucial in operative management in order to establish definitively the presence or absence of coronary venous collaterals, and when present, to verify their operative ligation

Metal-insulator transition and electroresistance in lanthanum/calcium manganites La_<1-x>Ca_<x>MnO_<3> (x = 0-0.5) from voltage-current-temperature surfaces

Of the perovskites, ABX_, a subset of special interest is the family in which the A site is occupied by a lanthanide ion, the B site by a rare earth and X is oxygen, as such materials often exhibit a large change in electrical resistance in a magnetic field, a phenomenon known as "colossal" magnetoresistance (MR). Two additional phenomena in this family have also drawn attention: the metal-insulator transition (MIT) and electroresistance (ER). The MIT is revealed by measuring resistance as a function of temperature, and observing a change in the sign of the gradient. ER - the dependence of the resistance on applied current - is revealed by measuring resistance as a function of applied current. Up until now, the phenomena of MIT and ER have been treated separately. Here we report simultaneous observation of the MIT and ER in the lanthanum/calcium manganites. We accomplish this by measuring voltage-current curves over a wide temperature range (10-300 K) allowing us to build up an experimental voltage surface over current-temperature axes. These data directly lead to resistance surfaces. This approach provides additional insight into the phenomena of electrical transport in the lanthanum/calcium manganites, in particular the close connection of the maximum ER to the occurrence of the MIT in those cases of a paramagnetic insulator (PMI) to ferromagnetic metal (FMM) transition.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Coriolis force in Geophysics: an elementary introduction and examples

We show how Geophysics may illustrate and thus improve classical Mechanics lectures concerning the study of Coriolis force effects. We are then interested in atmospheric as well as oceanic phenomena we are familiar with, and are for that reason of pedagogical and practical interest. Our aim is to model them in a very simple way to bring out the physical phenomena that are involved.Comment: Accepted for publication in European Journal of Physic