3,661 research outputs found

    The effects of computer assisted instruction for students with learning disabilities in a self-contained social studies setting

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    This study was designed to assess the effects of the Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) program, Achieve3000, with students with disabilities. The focus of the study was to: (a) assess the effects of the program on the students\u27 text-based reading comprehension, (b) critical thinking comprehension, and (c) how satisfied students were with the program. Seven students, two females and five males, participated in the study. All of the students receive special education services through an Individualized Education Program. A single subject ABAB design was utilized. In the baseline phase participants were asked to read expository text, presented to them on paper, and then asked to answer ten questions based upon the reading. The questions were both text-based and critical thinking. In the intervention phases the participants were asked to read expository text, presented through the online computer program, and asked to answer seven to eight questions based on the text. These questions were also a mix of text-based and critical thinking. Participants were then asked, at the end of the study, to fill out a survey about their experience and how satisfied they were with the use of the program. The results of the study show that the participants\u27 critical thinking comprehension scores increased through the use of the Achieve3000 program. Conversely, the study also shows that the participants\u27 text-based comprehension scores decreased. The majority of participants responded that they were satisfied with the use of the program

    An algorithm to identify automorphisms which arise from self-induced interval exchange transformations

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    We give an algorithm to determine if the dynamical system generated by a positive automorphism of the free group can also be generated by a self-induced interval exchange transformation. The algorithm effectively yields the interval exchange transformation in case of success.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures. v2: the article has been reorganized to make for a more linear read. A few paragraphs have been added for clarit

    The gamification of cybersecurity training

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    Due to the rapidly and continued evolving nature of technology, there is a constant need to update police officers’ training in cyber security to ensure that the UK continues to be a secure place to live and do business. Rather than deliver traditional classroom-based training, our project assesses the effectiveness of the delivery of cyber security through the use of games based learning to simulate cybercrimes and provide training in incident response. The aim of our research is to transform the delivery of first responder training in tackling cybercrime.Through the use of a Game Jam and subsequent prototype development, we have trialed training materials that are based on serious games technology. The game poses a common incident reported to the police, for example the problem of a virtual person receiving offensive messages via Facebook and the training reflects the dialogue with that person and the technical steps to ensure that a copy of the evidence has been preserved for further investigation. Evaluation has been conducted with local police officers. Overall, this approach to the large-scale provision of training (potentially to a whole force) is shown to offer potential

    On the use of serious games technology to facilitate large-scale training in cybercrime response

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    As technology becomes pervasive in everyday life, there are very few crimes that don’t have some ‘cyber’ element to them. The vast majority of crime now has some digital footprint; whether it’s from a CCTV camera, mobile phone or IoT device, there exists a vast range of technological devices with the ability to store digital evidence that could be of use during a criminal investigation. There is a clear requirement to ensure that digital forensic investigators have received up-to-date training on appropriate methods for the seizure, acquisition and analysis of digital devices. However, given the increasing number of crimes now involving a range of technological devices it is increasingly important for those police officers who respond to incidents of crime to have received appropriate training.The aim of our research is to transform the delivery of first responder training in tackling cybercrime.A project trialling the use of computer games technology to train officers in cybercrime response is described. A game simulating typical cybercrime scenes has been developed and its use in training first responders has been evaluated within Police Scotland. Overall, this approach to the large-scale provision of training (potentially to a whole force) is shown to offer potential

    Are the distributions of Fast Radio Burst properties consistent with a cosmological population?

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    High time resolution radio surveys over the last few years have discovered a population of millisecond-duration transient bursts called Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), which remain of unknown origin. FRBs exhibit dispersion consistent with propagation through a cold plasma and dispersion measures indicative of an origin at cosmological distances. In this paper we perform Monte Carlo simulations of a cosmological population of FRBs, based on assumptions consistent with observations of their energy distribution, their spatial density as a function of redshift and the properties of the interstellar and intergalactic media. We examine whether the dispersion measures, fluences, inferred redshifts, signal-to-noises and effective widths of known FRBs are consistent with a cosmological population. Statistical analyses indicate that at least 50 events at Parkes are required to distinguish between a constant co-moving FRB density, and a FRB density that evolves with redshift like the cosmological star formation rate density.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 table

    Enumerating Abelian Returns to Prefixes of Sturmian Words

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    We follow the works of Puzynina and Zamboni, and Rigo et al. on abelian returns in Sturmian words. We determine the cardinality of the set APRu\mathcal{APR}_u of abelian returns of all prefixes of a Sturmian word uu in terms of the coefficients of the continued fraction of the slope, dependingly on the intercept. We provide a simple algorithm for finding the set APRu\mathcal{APR}_u and we determine it for the characteristic Sturmian words.Comment: 19page

    The formation heritage of Jupiter Family Comet 10P/Tempel 2 as revealed by infrared spectroscopy

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    We present spectral and spatial information for major volatile species in Comet 10P/Tempel 2, based on high-dispersion infrared spectra acquired on UT 2010 July 26 (heliocentric distance Rh = 1.44 AU) and September 18 (Rh = 1.62 AU), following the comet's perihelion passage on UT 2010 July 04. The total production rate for water on July 26 was (1.90 +/- 0.12) x 10^28 molecules s-1, and abundances of six trace gases (relative to water) were: CH3OH (1.58% +/- 0.23), C2H6 (0.39% +/- 0.04), NH3 (0.83% +/- 0.20), and HCN (0.13% +/- 0.02). A detailed analysis of intensities for water emission lines provided a rotational temperature of 35 +/- 3 K. The mean OPR is consistent with nuclear spin populations in statistical equilibrium (OPR = 3.01 +/- 0.18), and the (1-sigma) lower bound corresponds to a spin temperature > 38 K. Our measurements were contemporaneous with a jet-like feature observed at optical wavelengths. The spatial profiles of four primary volatiles display strong enhancements in the jet direction, which favors release from a localized vent on the nucleus. The measured IR continuum is much more sharply peaked and is consistent with a dominant contribution from the nucleus itself. The peak intensities for H2O, CH3OH, and C2H6 are offset by ~200 km in the jet direction, suggesting the possible existence of a distributed source, such as the release of icy grains that subsequently sublimed in the coma. On UT September 18, no obvious emission lines were present in our spectra, nevertheless we obtained a 3-sigma upper limit Q(H2O) < 2.86 x 10^27 molecules s-1

    Relativistic spin precession in the binary PSR J1141-6545

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    PSR J1141-6545 is a precessing binary pulsar that has the rare potential to reveal the two-dimensional structure of a non-recycled pulsar emission cone. It has undergone 25deg\sim 25 \deg of relativistic spin precession in the 18\sim18 years since its discovery. In this paper, we present a detailed Bayesian analysis of the precessional evolution of the width of the total intensity profile, to understand the changes to the line-of-sight impact angle (β\beta) of the pulsar using four different physically motivated prior distribution models. Although we cannot statistically differentiate between the models with confidence, the temporal evolution of the linear and circular polarisations strongly argue that our line-of-sight crossed the magnetic pole around MJD 54000 and that only two models remain viable. For both these models, it appears likely that the pulsar will precess out of our line-of-sight in the next 353-5 years, assuming a simple beam geometry. Marginalising over β\beta suggests that the pulsar is a near-orthogonal rotator and provides the first polarization-independent estimate of the scale factor (A\mathbb{A}) that relates the pulsar beam opening angle (ρ\rho) to its rotational period (PP) as ρ=AP0.5\rho = \mathbb{A}P^{-0.5} : we find it to be >6 deg s0.5> 6 \rm~deg~s^{0.5} at 1.4 GHz with 99\% confidence. If all pulsars emit from opposite poles of a dipolar magnetic field with comparable brightness, we might expect to see evidence of an interpulse arising in PSR J1141-6545, unless the emission is patchy.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter
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