Using a Capstone E-portfolio to encourage integration across a degree program

The Bachelor of Business Program in Faculty of Business at the University of Technology Sydney has been undergoing a review process over the last twelve months..

Basic linear algebra subprograms for FORTRAN usage

A package of 38 low level subprograms for many of the basic operations of numerical linear algebra is presented. The package is intended to be used with FORTRAN. The operations in the package are dot products, elementary vector operations, Givens transformations, vector copy and swap, vector norms, vector scaling, and the indices of components of largest magnitude. The subprograms and a test driver are available in portable FORTRAN. Versions of the subprograms are also provided in assembly language for the IBM 360/67, the CDC 6600 and CDC 7600, and the Univac 1108

LICSS - a chemical spreadsheet in microsoft excel

Abstract Background Representations of chemical datasets in spreadsheet format are important for ready data assimilation and manipulation. In addition to the normal spreadsheet facilities, chemical spreadsheets need to have visualisable chemical structures and data searchable by chemical as well as textual queries. Many such chemical spreadsheet tools are available, some operating in the familiar Microsoft Excel environment. However, within this group, the performance of Excel is often compromised, particularly in terms of the number of compounds which can usefully be stored on a sheet. Summary LICSS is a lightweight chemical spreadsheet within Microsoft Excel for Windows. LICSS stores structures solely as Smiles strings. Chemical operations are carried out by calling Java code modules which use the CDK, JChemPaint and OPSIN libraries to provide cheminformatics functionality. Compounds in sheets or charts may be visualised (individually or en masse), and sheets may be searched by substructure or similarity. All the molecular descriptors available in CDK may be calculated for compounds (in batch or on-the-fly), and various cheminformatic operations such as fingerprint calculation, Sammon mapping, clustering and R group table creation may be carried out. We detail here the features of LICSS and how they are implemented. We also explain the design criteria, particularly in terms of potential corporate use, which led to this particular implementation. Conclusions LICSS is an Excel-based chemical spreadsheet with a difference: • It can usefully be used on sheets containing hundreds of thousands of compounds; it doesn't compromise the normal performance of Microsoft Excel • It is designed to be installed and run in environments in which users do not have admin privileges; installation involves merely file copying, and sharing of LICSS sheets invokes automatic installation • It is free and extensible LICSS is open source software and we hope sufficient detail is provided here to enable developers to add their own features and share with the community.</p

Composite fermions from the algebraic point of view

Composite fermion wavefuctions have been used to describe electrons in a strong magnetic field. We show that the polynomial part of these wavefunctions can be obtained by applying a normal ordered product of suitably defined annihilation and creation operators to an even power of the Vandermonde determinant, which can been considered as a kind of a non-trivial Fermi sea. In the case of the harmonic interaction we solve the system exactly in the lowest Landau level. The solution makes explicit the boson-fermion correspondence proposed recently.Comment: 11 pages 1 figur

International Service Learning: Occupational Therapists\u27 Perceptions of Their Experiences in Guatemala

The U.S. is fast becoming more culturally diverse, creating a greater need for entry-level occupational therapists to be culturally competent. In order to increase students’ cultural competence, there is a growing support for international service learning (ISL). The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the perspectives of occupational therapy practitioners who engaged in ISL as occupational therapy students. Interviews were conducted with nine practicing occupational therapists, all of whom graduated from the same occupational therapy program in the U.S. and participated in an ISL experience in Guatemala. Phenomenological methods were used to analyze the transcribed interviews for codes, categories, and themes. The three themes that emerged were: Participants reported encountering many new experiences that led to experiencing a variety of emotions, their experiences in the Guatemalan culture further contributed to a deeper level of understanding about culture, and all of the participants reported that their ISL experiences allowed them to practice occupational therapy skills and interventions with limited resources, which facilitated creativity and resourcefulness. The findings of this study support that completing ISL as students contributes to occupational therapists’ personal and professional lives and offers a glimpse of potential long-term effects of completing an ISL experience

SOS: A tool to support assessment practice across degree courses

Reviews of degree programs often reveal a lack of a suitable structure to ensure the appropriate distribution and weighting of students’ assessment experiences across the program. In an attempt to address this issue, the Subject Overview Spreadsheet (SOS) was developed to support staff in designing their assessments and monitoring practice across each year of a degree program. The tool is designed to be used initially by subject coordinators designing their modules, to ensure that all assessment aligns with learning objectives and meets faculty and university policies. SOS then collates information for related sets of subjects – for example, all first-year core subjects within a degree program or all compulsory subjects within a major – and produces a series of tables so that teaching teams across subjects can view the types, weightings and distributions of the assessments. These tables can be used to identify gaps or overloading in the subject assessment design, so that modifications can be made to provide a suitable balance for students. This process has proven very effective with large programs with multiple majors. Data is then forwarded to the accreditation committee to monitor assessment and assurance of learning across the program. It also facilitates reviews of the impact of any proposed changes in subject assessment design

Five Years On: What has changed in assurance of learning?

Education policies measuring quality in teaching and learning processes and associated discussions have escalated over recent years (Krause, Barrie & Scott, 2012). In Australia, under the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011, higher-education providers are responsible to ensure that “Assessment tasks for the course of study and its units provide opportunities for students to demonstrate achievement of the expected student learning outcomes for the course of study” (HESF, 2011:Standard 5.1). This standard aligns with the model of assurance of learning first proposed in the OLT Strategic Priority Project: Hunters and Gatherers: Strategies for Curriculum Mapping and Data Collection for Assurance of Learning (Lawson, Taylor et al, 2014). The empirical basis for the model was a national study of university practices across business schools. Notably, the main challenges for implementation were associated with staff engagement and workload issues; as well as scalability and sustainability of practice. Although mapping of learning outcomes across degrees was reported as common practice, some 60% of respondent institutions had not collected any specific learning outcome data yet. The OLT Extension Project: Gathering valid data for quality enhancement: assessing, reviewing, benchmarking & closing the loop for assurance of learning in regional universities (Lawson, Scheepers et al, 2015) builds on the earlier ‘Hunters’ findings. The 2015 project investigates supporting assurance of learning by engaging academics and senior faculty managers in valid data collection for quality enhancement. This presentation focuses on a follow up survey on current AOL practice in Australian Universities, targeting Business Schools, and draws on the original project data to enable between project comparisons. Interview data will be analysed using NVIVO to map current trends and good practice, identify ongoing challenges, and compare current practices with the 2010 findings. Key themes will be explored in the session along with the discussion of recommendations for meeting current quality measurement challenges

Renal fibrosis in feline chronic kidney disease: known mediators and mechanisms of injury

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common medical condition of ageing cats. In most cases the underlying aetiology is unknown, but the most frequently reported pathological diagnosis is renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Renal fibrosis, characterised by extensive accumulation of extra-cellular matrix within the interstitium, is thought to be the final common pathway for all kidney diseases and is the pathological lesion best correlated with function in both humans and cats. As a convergent pathway, renal fibrosis provides an ideal target for the treatment of CKD and knowledge of the underlying fibrotic process is essential for the future development of novel therapies. There are many mediators and mechanisms of renal fibrosis reported in the literature, of which only a few have been investigated in the cat. This article reviews the process of renal fibrosis and discusses the most commonly cited mediators and mechanisms of progressive renal injury, with particular focus on the potential significance to feline CKD