Representing uncertainty on model analysis plots

Model analysis provides a mechanism for representing student learning as measured by standard multiple-choice surveys. The model plot contains information regarding both how likely students in a particular class are to choose the correct answer and how likely they are to choose an answer consistent with a well-documented conceptual model. Unfortunately Bao's original presentation of the model plot did not include a way to represent uncertainty in these measurements. I present details of a method to add error bars to model plots by expanding the work of Sommer and Lindell. I also provide a template for generating model plots with error bars.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Phys. Edu. Res. Published version will include supplementary file

The Siricidae (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) of Florida

The six species of Siricidae (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) occurring in Florida and one species of regulatory concern introduced to North America are reviewed. Included are diagnoses of Eriotremex formosanus (Matsumura), Sirex areolatus (Cresson), Sirex nigricornis Fabricius, Tremex columba (Linnaeus), Urocerus cressoni Norton, Urocerus taxodii (Ashmead) and Sirex noctilio (Fabricius). A key to species, photographs of morphological features, biological notes and distribution data are provided. For the species T. columba, S. nigricornis, U. taxodii, and U. cressoni, a total of eight new state records are presented

Ariadne: An interface to support collaborative database browsing:Technical Report CSEG/3/1995

This paper outlines issues in the learning of information searching skills. We report on our observations of the learning of browsing skills and the subsequent iterative development and testing of the Ariadne system – intended to investigate and support the collaborative learning of search skills. A key part of this support is a mechanism for recording an interaction history and providing students with a visualisation of that history that they can reflect and comment upon

The Creation and Implementation of Courses in a Learning Management System

With today’s fast-paced education culture becoming more dependent on technology educators and faculty are looking for more efficient and effective means of implementing a productive and beneficial format of presenting course material, using engaging formative and summative assessments, and data archiving and analysis. This creative component utilizes the creation and implementation of curriculum in a Learning Management System (LMS) titled Schoology as well as the analysis of prior research to prove that the utilization of a LMS is both beneficial to learners as well as the educators that utilize them. This not only supports a more interactive and well-rounded educational experience to take place inside the classroom, but extends learning to outside of the traditional classroom environment through long-distance learning therefore making learning and education (formal and informal) available to a wider audience of learners

Student understanding of the Boltzmann factor

We present results of our investigation into student understanding of the physical significance and utility of the Boltzmann factor in several simple models. We identify various justifications, both correct and incorrect, that students use when answering written questions that require application of the Boltzmann factor. Results from written data as well as teaching interviews suggest that many students can neither recognize situations in which the Boltzmann factor is applicable, nor articulate the physical significance of the Boltzmann factor as an expression for multiplicity, a fundamental quantity of statistical mechanics. The specific student difficulties seen in the written data led us to develop a guided-inquiry tutorial activity, centered around the derivation of the Boltzmann factor, for use in undergraduate statistical mechanics courses. We report on the development process of our tutorial, including data from teaching interviews and classroom observations on student discussions about the Boltzmann factor and its derivation during the tutorial development process. This additional information informed modifications that improved students' abilities to complete the tutorial during the allowed class time without sacrificing the effectiveness as we have measured it. These data also show an increase in students' appreciation of the origin and significance of the Boltzmann factor during the student discussions. Our findings provide evidence that working in groups to better understand the physical origins of the canonical probability distribution helps students gain a better understanding of when the Boltzmann factor is applicable and how to use it appropriately in answering relevant questions

Corn, Cows, and Climate Change: How Federal Agricultural Subsidies Enable Factory Farming and Exacerbate U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions

As people around the globe grapple with the realities of an ever-warming planet, Americans, too, are coping with some of the attendant consequences of climate change: severe droughts, storms, and wildfires to name just a few. In response, Americans are evaluating their personal and collective contributions to the climate crisis. Notwithstanding President Trump’s unilateral move in June 2017 to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the international community is pressing forward with comprehensive strategies to mitigate anthropogenic sources of atmospheric carbon. Despite their best efforts, however, most of these actions focus on the energy and transportation sectors while largely ignoring the most significant, though lesser acknowledged, climate culprit of them all: industrial animal agriculture (or “factory farming”). Like many of its international counterparts, the United States currently has no broad-based plan to mitigate carbon emissions from its livestock industry. However, if Americans can garner the political will to prioritize the climate impacts of animal agriculture, any effective emissions-reduction strategy must be multi-faceted. The strategy must address the underlying drivers of factory farming and not just livestock-related emissions. This necessarily requires an overhaul of federal crop subsidies that provide livestock producers with a glut of cheap feed grains—corn and soy, specifically—that enable them to produce meat well below its true cost. Shifting federal subsidies away from commodity crops and toward a broader array of fruits, vegetables, and nuts (or “specialty crops”) could level the playing field between commodity crop and specialty crop production. Additionally, shifting federal subsidies to specialty crops could catalyze a change in consumer choices away from carbon-intensive meat and toward more carbon-neutral, plant-based alternatives

Gemini Telepresence Robot System Design: A Low-Cost Solution for Manipulation and Enhanced Perception of Telepresence Robots

Current telepresence robots are costly and only allow the operator to see the environment on a 2D screen and move around on a wheelbase. Thus, these telepresence devices are severely limited because of the high barrier of entry, and the operator is unable to manipulate objects or easily perceive the world in 3D. Therefore, to address these gaps in capabilities, Gemini, an open-source telepresence humanoid robot and interface station, was designed to grant the operator the ability to manipulate objects, expand the human interface by putting the user in the 3D world with the use of a virtual reality (VR) headset, and be low-cost. The simplistic, low-cost, and intuitive controls of Gemini promote early adoption by businesses and medical personnel to grant increased telepresence needs. In addition, this platform can be utilized by robotics enthusiasts and university researchers studying humanoid robotics or human-robot interaction. This paper presents an overview of the Gemini robot’s mechanical, electrical, and programmatic systems. Upon completion of this study, it was found that Gemini was able to grant the ability to manipulate objects, increase user perception with intuitive controls, in addition to costing approximately 30% less than commercial telepresence robots. Furthermore, the paper is concluded with remarks on future iterations of the project

Pioneers, Patriots, and Politicians: The Tennessee Militia System, 1772-1857

Like all U.S. states, prior to the Civil War Tennessee maintained an active militia system. This dissertation examines the establishment, function, and decline of this organization. For more than eighty years the Tennessee militia participated in a number of military conflicts. It also played an important role in the state\u27s social and political development. The militia was among the first institutions established by the early Tennessee settlers. It began as an informal collection of every able-bodied male. By 1800 the militia had grown considerably, and the volunteers, who served by choice, assumed the burden of meeting the state\u27s military needs. During Tennessee\u27s first years, the militia was useful as a support mechanism for Tennessee\u27 s bureaucratic processes. It was the framework by which men paid taxes and voted. Militiamen also built roads. During the early nineteenth century the militias had become important social institutions, and militia membership became a tool for men seeking social and political advancement. The militias eventually emerged as political organizations as well. Militiamen worked together to assert their political will, and volunteer companies became associated with political parties. The Tennessee militia was a very active military organization. The earliest militiamen defended against hostile Indians and were thus critical to the survival of the white settlements. By the 1780s, however, the militia became a tool to drive the state\u27s Indian people from their tribal land. In 1838 the state used the militia in the infamous Indian removal. Militiamen from the Volunteer State also participated in every major antebellum conflict. When in active service Tennessee volunteers typically performed well. However, during peacetime many volunteer companies did not train regularly. The state did, however, always maintain a few well-trained and well-armed companies. After the removal of the eastern Indians the Tennessee militia declined rapidly. By 1850 the state no longer needed to keep large numbers of men trained for military service, and the militia ceased to exist as a functional organization

The Durham Latin Prose “Brut” to 1347 with a Continuation to 1348: A Nationalistic Chronicle of England and its Manuscripts

This article re-examines the unedited Durham Latin Prose “Brut” chronicle and its manuscript tradition in light of the discovery of a previously unknown manuscript. The Durham “Brut” covers the history of England from its legendary origins through the English victories over Scotland and France in 1346–47. The chronicle’s later years are related to those in two other important late-medieval chronicles, the Anonimalle Chronicleand the Lanercost Chronicle, and for a short section of John of Washington\u27s later chronicle. Only one witness of the Durham “Brut” was known until 2011, when another was identified with a 1347–48 continuation in a seventeenth-century hand. This article identifies an additional medieval witness that also includes the continuation. This article examines all three manuscripts together to track their development through both layout and a word by word comparison of a section of the text (Edward III’s 1346 invasion of Normandy). This article will serve as a starting point for future editors of this neglected but important chronicle, written during a time of great change in English culture and national identity

Consolidation and other geotechnical properties of shales with respect to age and composition

Studies of a wide selection of over consolidated, weak argillaceous rocks from major formations in the United Kingdom and North America have shown that the compaction history, coupled with the mineralogical composition have a decisive bearing on the nature of the material, both at depth and in the near surface zone. Current evidence indicates that maximum depths of burial of North American sediments are generally much greater than their British counterparts; infearing that overburden does not increase systematically with age. Furthermore major differences have also been observed in the mineralogy and geochemistry of these two groups. In particular, recalculated smectite formulae indicate the onset of the montmorillonite to illite transformation in the former sediments. Preferred orientation studies and electron microscopy have been used/to elucidate the clay microstructure, whereas exchangeable cations and pore water chemistry indicate possible interactions between clay, minerals. Consolidation studies to a pressure of 35000KN/m(^2) on both undisturbed and remoulded materials have led to a new interpretation of the stress-strain response, and in addition these tests have indicated the presence of diagenetic bonding in unweathered materials the strength of which is dependent upon the maximum depth of burial and mineral species present. Furthermore, since slaking and suction experiments frequently only detect this bonding in the Caroniferous materials, it has been inferred that mineral-mineral welding is present in these and that cat ionic bonding predominates in younger sediments. Consequently to avoid unforeseen engineering complications in the field caused by the subsequent destruction of the latter bond type by weathering agents it has been suggested that a combination of suction and consolidation tests should be performed on the shales in question