Cambridge University Libraries Annual Report 2019-2020

During the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, our reliance on technology and the digital world has never been greater. Just as Cambridge University Libraries have worked to recover our physical services, so have we grown our library offer online, responding to both the University’s and society’s need to facilitate teaching, learning and research. Our latest Annual Report celebrates the amazing digital collections of Cambridge University Library, which we, as one of the world’s great libraries and research collections, make available to a global audience. There has also been much to celebrate away from our collective response to the pandemic - we have seen the one millionth book deposited in our Ely store; the UL’s Special Collections recognized as being of ‘outstanding international importance’; and we celebrated the impact and legacy of Women at Cambridge over centuries

MCMC methods for functions modifying old algorithms to make\ud them faster

Many problems arising in applications result in the need\ud to probe a probability distribution for functions. Examples include Bayesian nonparametric statistics and conditioned diffusion processes. Standard MCMC algorithms typically become arbitrarily slow under the mesh refinement dictated by nonparametric description of the unknown function. We describe an approach to modifying a whole range of MCMC methods which ensures that their speed of convergence is robust under mesh refinement. In the applications of interest the data is often sparse and the prior specification is an essential part of the overall modeling strategy. The algorithmic approach that we describe is applicable whenever the desired probability measure has density with respect to a Gaussian process or Gaussian random field prior, and to some useful non-Gaussian priors constructed through random truncation. Applications are shown in density estimation, data assimilation in fluid mechanics, subsurface geophysics and image registration. The key design principle is to formulate the MCMC method for functions. This leads to algorithms which can be implemented via minor modification of existing algorithms, yet which show enormous speed-up on a wide range of applied problems

Observational analysis of student activity modes, lesson contexts and teacher interactions during games classes in high school (11—16 years) physical education

This purpose of this study was to examine student activity, lesson contexts and teacher interactions during secondary school physical education, using a recently validated systematic observation instrument termed the System for Observing the Teaching of Games in Physical Education (SOTG-PE). Thirty, single-gender high school (11—16 years) physical education games lessons were systematically observed and recorded using SOTG-PE. Results showed the pupils were engaged in high levels of inactivity. The highest level of inactivity was recorded (52.8 percent) in the striking/fielding category. In the lesson context category general management was recorded highest (47.4 percent). The highest recorded teacher interactions across the three games categories were verbally promoting technical behaviour (40.9 percent). </jats:p

Junior Recital: Michael Stuart Roberts, violoncello

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Roberts studies violoncello with Charae Krueger.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1070/thumbnail.jp

The Influence of Relative Age Effect in the Assessment of High School Students in Physical Education in the United Kingdom

The common practice of annually age grouping children in education, likely done under the assumption of similarly aged children sharing similar abilities and learner characteristics, may actually undermine equity and fairness in student assessments. This strategy has received criticism for (dis) advantaging those older children born closer to the “cut off” date for entry into an academic year and for promoting the existence of relative age effects (RAEs). This paper explores the possibility that RAEs may be prevalent in the end-of-year attainment levels of junior high school physical education (PE) students. The PE end-of-year attainment scores were collected from 582 students in grades 7, 8 and 9 (aged 11–14 years) in the United Kingdom (UK). The results from a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated a significant main effect for month of birth (p = .001) and gender (p = .001). Follow up interviews with heads of PE (HoPE) revealed a lack of awareness of RAEs and inconsiderate assessment strategies, which deviated from the requirements of the formal curriculum. The implications of RAEs in school PE assessment and possible recommendations are discussed.</jats:p

Senior Recital: Michael Stuart Roberts, violoncello

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Roberts studies violoncello with Charae Krueger.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2012/thumbnail.jp