Assessment and learning outcomes: the evaluation of deep learning in an on-line course

Using an online learning environment, students from European countries collaborated and communicated to carry out problem based learning in occupational therapy. The effectiveness of this approach was evaluated by means of the final assessments and published learning outcomes. In particular, transcripts from peer-to-peer sessions of synchronous communication were analysed. The SOLO taxonomy was used and the development of deep learning was studied week by week. This allowed the quality of the course to be appraised and showed, to a certain extent, the impact of this online international course on the learning strategies of the students. Results indicate that deep learning can be supported by synchronous communication and online meetings between course participants.</p

Design, characterization, and fabrication of solar-retroreflective cool-wall materials

Raising urban albedo increases the fraction of incident sunlight returned to outer space, cooling cities and their buildings. We evaluated the angular distribution of solar radiation incident on exterior walls in 17 U S. climates to develop performance parameters for solar-retroreflective walls, then applied first-principle physics and ray-tracing simulations to explore designs. Our analysis indicates that retroreflective walls must function at large incidence angles to reflect a substantial portion of summer sunlight, and that this will be difficult to attain with materials that rely on total internal reflection. Gonio-spectrophotometer measurements of the solar spectral bi-directional reflectivity of a bicycle reflector showed little to no retroreflection at large incidence angles. Visual comparisons of retroreflection to specular first-surface reflection for four different retroreflective safety films using violet and green lasers suggest their retroreflection to be no greater than 0.09 at incidence angles up to 45°, and no greater than 0.30 at incidence angles of up to 70°. Attempts to produce a two-surface retroreflector with orthogonal mirror grooves by cutting and polishing an aluminum block indicate that residual surface roughness impedes retroreflection. Ongoing efforts focus on forming orthogonal surfaces with aluminized Mylar film, a material with very high specular reflectance across the solar spectrum. We investigated (1) folding or stamping a free film; (2) adhering the film to a pre-shaped substrate; or (3) attaching the film to a flat ductile substrate, then shaping. The latter two methods were more successful but yielded imperfect right angles

Make it so! Jean-Luc Picard, Bart Simpson and the design of e-public services

In this paper, we report on a project applying participatory design methods to include people who have experience of social exclusion (in one form or another) in designing possible technologies for e-(local)-government services. The work was part of a project for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the UK, and was concerned with ‘access tokens’ that can provide personal identification for individuals accessing public services, based on technologies such as multi-functional smartcards, flash memory sticks, mobile phone SIMs or similar devices. In particular we report on our experience using the ‘pastiche scenarios’ technique recently developed by Mark Blythe. Our findings indicate that the technique can be effective and engaging in helping people to create realistic scenarios of future technology use and highlight some possible pitfalls to consider when using this technique.</p

Exploring employee engagement with (corporate) social responsibility : a social exchange perspective on organisational participation

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a recognised and common part of business activity. Some of the regularly cited motives behind CSR are employee morale, recruitment and retention, with employees acknowledged as a key organisational stakeholder. Despite the significance of employees in relation to CSR, relatively few studies have examined their engagement with CSR and the impediments relevant to this engagement. This exploratory case study-based research addresses this paucity of attention, drawing on one to one interviews and observation in a large UK energy company. A diversity of engagement was found, ranging from employees who exhibited detachment from the CSR activities within the company, to those who were fully engaged with the CSR activities, and to others who were content with their own personal, but not organisational, engagement with CSR. A number of organisational context impediments, including poor communication, a perceived weak and low visibility of CSR culture, and lack of strategic alignment of CSR to business and personal objectives, served to explain this diversity of employee engagement. Social exchange theory is applied to help explore the volition that individual employees have towards their engagement with CSR activities, and to consider the implications of an implicit social, rather than explicit economic, contract between an organisation and its employees in their engagement with CSR

Glass-Like Heat Conduction in High-Mobility Crystalline Semiconductors

The thermal conductivity of polycrystalline semiconductors with type-I clathrate hydrate crystal structure is reported. Ge clathrates (doped with Sr and/or Eu) exhibit lattice thermal conductivities typical of amorphous materials. Remarkably, this behavior occurs in spite of the well-defined crystalline structure and relatively high electron mobility ($\sim 100 cm^2/Vs$). The dynamics of dopant ions and their interaction with the polyhedral cages of the structure are a likely source of the strong phonon scattering.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figures, to be published, Phys. Rev. Let

Resonant States in the Electronic Structure of the High Performance Thermoelectrics AgPbmSbTe_{m}SbTe_{2+m}$ ; The Role of Ag-Sb Microstructures

Ab initio electronic structure calculations based on gradient corrected density functional theory were performed on a class of novel quaternary compounds AgPb$_{m}SbTe$_{2+m}$, which were found to be excellent high temperature thermoelctrics with large figure of merit ZT ~2.2 at 800K. We find that resonant states appear near the top of the valence and bottom of the conduction bands of bulk PbTe when Ag and Sb replace Pb. These states can be understood in terms of modified Te-Ag(Sb) bonds. Electronic structure near the gap depends sensitively on the microstructural arrangements of Ag-Sb atoms, suggesting that large ZT values may originate from the nature of these ordering arrangements.Comment: Accepted in Physical Review Letter

Reporting underage consensual sex after the Teddy Bear case: A different perspective

Doctors and researchers face a complex dilemma regarding the mandatory reporting of consensual underage sex, because of contradictions between the Children’s Act and the Sexual Offences Act. When providing underage children with sexual and reproductive health services, they have had to decide whether to provide these confidentially, in terms of the Children’s Act, or thereafter report the consensual but illegal sexual behaviour to the police, in terms of the Sexual Offences Act. The recent Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children, and Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (RAPCAN) v. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development case addressed whether consensual underage sex ought to be a criminal offence and thus reported. The court held that aspects of sections 15 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act infringed on the constitutional rights of adolescents (aged 12 - 15 years) by proscribing many consensual sexual activities. McQuoid-Mason has described this case in detail. He submits that following the judgement, doctors are no longer under a reporting obligation in relation to consensual underage sex. We respectfully disagree. This article critiques McQuoid-Mason’s approach, sets out our views on the mandatory reporting obligations after the Teddy Bear case and concludes with some comments on the judgement’s implications for researchers and medical practitioners

Glasslike vs. crystalline thermal conductivity in carrier-tuned Ba8Ga16X30 clathrates (X = Ge, Sn)

The present controversy over the origin of glasslike thermal conductivity observed in certain crystalline materials is addressed by studies on single-crystal x-ray diffraction, thermal conductivity k(T) and specific heat Cp(T) of carrier-tuned Ba8Ga16X30 (X = Ge, Sn) clathrates. These crystals show radically different low-temperature k(T) behaviors depending on whether their charge carriers are electrons or holes, displaying the usual crystalline peak in the former case and an anomalous glasslike plateau in the latter. In contrast, Cp(T) above 4 K and the general structural properties are essentially insensitive to carrier tuning. We analyze these combined results within the framework of a Tunneling/Resonant/Rayleigh scatterings model, and conclude that the evolution from crystalline to glasslike k(T) is accompanied by an increase both in the effective density of tunnelling states and in the resonant scattering level, while neither one of these contributions can solely account for the observed changes in the full temperature range. This suggests that the most relevant factor which determines crystalline or glasslike behavior is the coupling strength between the guest vibrational modes and the frameworks with different charge carriers.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.