The introduction and refinement of the assessment of digitally recorded audio presentations

This case study critically evaluates benefits and challenges of a form of assessment included in a final year undergraduate Religious Studies Open University module, which combines a written essay task with a digital audio recording of a short oral presentation. Based on the analysis of student and tutor feedback and sample assignments, this study critically examines how teaching and learning practices linked to this novel form of assessment have been iteratively developed in light of the project findings over a period of two years. It concludes that while this form of assessment poses a number of challenges, it can create valuable opportunities for the development of transferable twenty-first-century graduate employability skills as well as deep, effective learning experiences, particularly – though not exclusively – in distance learning settings

Attitude Determination from Single-Antenna Carrier-Phase Measurements

A model of carrier phase measurement (as carried out by a satellite navigation receiver) is formulated based on electromagnetic theory. The model shows that the phase of the open-circuit voltage induced in the receiver antenna with respect to a local oscillator (in the receiver) depends on the relative orientation of the receiving and transmitting antennas. The model shows that using a {\it single} receiving antenna, and making carrier phase measurements to seven satellites, the 3-axis attitude of a user platform (in addition to its position and time) can be computed relative to an initial point. This measurement model can also be used to create high-fidelity satellite signal simulators that take into account the effect of platform rotation as well as translation.Comment: 12 pages, and one figure. Published in J. Appl. Phys. vol. 91, No. 7, April 1, 200

Utilisation of Whole-Crop Pea Silages Differing in Condensed Tannin Content as a Replacement for Soya Bean Meal in the Diet of Dairy Cows

Adesogan et al. (2004), has demonstrated that ensiled pea wheat intercrops can reduce the amount of concentrate fed to dairy cows by 50% without affecting milk yield or composition. A limitation of forage peas for high yielding dairy cows is the low by-pass protein content, but it has been suggested by Broderick (1995), that feeding forages that contain low levels of condensed tannin can improve nitrogen utilisation. The objective of the current experiments was to evaluate the potential of whole-crop pea silage differing in condensed tannin content to replace soya bean meal in the diet of late lactation, pregnant dairy cows

Kinematics of Multigrid Monte Carlo

We study the kinematics of multigrid Monte Carlo algorithms by means of acceptance rates for nonlocal Metropolis update proposals. An approximation formula for acceptance rates is derived. We present a comparison of different coarse-to-fine interpolation schemes in free field theory, where the formula is exact. The predictions of the approximation formula for several interacting models are well confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. The following rule is found: For a critical model with fundamental Hamiltonian H(phi), absence of critical slowing down can only be expected if the expansion of in terms of the shift psi contains no relevant (mass) term. We also introduce a multigrid update procedure for nonabelian lattice gauge theory and study the acceptance rates for gauge group SU(2) in four dimensions.Comment: 28 pages, 8 ps-figures, DESY 92-09

Experiments on a videotape atom chip: fragmentation and transport studies

This paper reports on experiments with ultra-cold rubidium atoms confined in microscopic magnetic traps created using a piece of periodically-magnetized videotape mounted on an atom chip. The roughness of the confining potential is studied with atomic clouds at temperatures of a few microKelvin and at distances between 30 and 80 microns from the videotape-chip surface. The inhomogeneities in the magnetic field created by the magnetized videotape close to the central region of the chip are characterized in this way. In addition, we demonstrate a novel transport mechanism whereby we convey cold atoms confined in arrays of videotape magnetic micro-traps over distances as large as ~ 1 cm parallel to the chip surface. This conveying mechanism enables us to survey the surface of the chip and observe potential-roughness effects across different regions.Comment: 29 pages, 22 figures

Closing in on the picture : analyzing interactions in video recordings

This paper provides a detailed account of the processing and analysing of data, obtained through video recording during reflective practitioner research. It sets out five stages in the analysis of video recordings of classroom interactions during a series of educational drama lessons: from decisions relating to the selection of data for close analysis, to the seeking of themes, and finally to the presentation of conclusions. The researcher adapted and synthesised several processes derived from discourse analysis (Wells, 2001; Spiers, 2004; Gee, 2005) to produce a range of instruments for use in transcription and analysis of verbal and non-verbal discourse. These include: a simple transcription key; classifications for verbal and non-verbal discourse; and a template for a transcription and analysis matrix

Teachers' classroom feedback: still trying to get it right

This article examines feedback traditionally given by teachers in schools. Such feedback tends to focus on children's acquisition and retrieval of externally prescribed knowledge which is then assessed against mandated tests. It suggests that, from a sociocultural learning perspective, feedback directed towards such objectives may limit children's social development. In this article, I draw on observation and interview data gathered from a group of 27 9- to 10-year olds in a UK primary school. These data illustrate the children's perceived need to conform to, rather than negotiate, the teacher's feedback comments. They highlight the children's sense that the teacher's feedback relates to school learning but not to their own interests. The article also includes alternative examples of feedback which draw on children's own inquiries and which relate to the social contexts within which, and for whom, they act. It concludes by suggesting that instead of looking for the right answer to the question of what makes teachers' feedback effective in our current classrooms, a more productive question might be how a negotiation can be opened up among teachers and learners themselves, about how teachers' feedback could support children's learning most appropriately

Reading Dickens’s characters: employing psycholinguistic methods to investigate the cognitive reality of patterns in texts

This article reports the findings of an empirical study that uses eye-tracking and follow-up interviews as methods to investigate how participants read body language clusters in novels by Charles Dickens. The study builds on previous corpus stylistic work that has identified patterns of body language presentation as techniques of characterisation in Dickens (Mahlberg, 2013). The article focuses on the reading of ‘clusters’, that is, repeated sequences of words. It is set in a research context that brings together observations from both corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics on the processing of repeated patterns. The results show that the body language clusters are read significantly faster than the overall sample extracts which suggests that the clusters are stored as units in the brain. This finding is complemented by the results of the follow-up questions which indicate that readers do not seem to refer to the clusters when talking about character information, although they are able to refer to clusters when biased prompts are used to elicit information. Beyond the specific results of the study, this article makes a contribution to the development of complementary methods in literary stylistics and it points to directions for further subclassifications of clusters that could not be achieved on the basis of corpus data alone

PKS 1830-211: A Possible Compound Gravitational Lens

Measurements of the properties of gravitational lenses have the power to tell us what sort of universe we live in. The brightest known radio Einstein ring/gravitational lens PKS 1830-211 (Jauncey et al., 1991), whilst obscured by our Galaxy at optical wavelengths, has recently been shown to contain absorption at the millimetre waveband at a redshift of 0.89 (Wiklind and Combes, 1996a). We report the detection of a new absorption feature, most likely due to neutral hydrogen in a second redshift system at z = 0.19. Follow-up VLBI observations have spatially resolved the absorption and reveal it to cover the NE compact component and part of the lower surface brightness ring. This new information, together with existing evidence of the unusual VLBI radio structure and difficulties in modeling the lensing system, points to the existence of a second lensing galaxy along our line of sight and implies that PKS 1830-211 may be a compound gravitational lens.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX (aasms4.sty). Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. Preprint also available at http://kerr.phys.utas.edu.au/preprints