Self-Regulation in a Web-Based Course: A Case Study

Little is known about how successful students in Web-based courses self-regulate their learning. This descriptive case study used a social cognitive model of self-regulated learning (SRL) to investigate how six graduate students used and adapted traditional SRL strategies to complete tasks and cope with challenges in a Web-based technology course; it also explored motivational and environmental influences on strategy use. Primary data sources were three transcribed interviews with each of the students over the course of the semester, a transcribed interview with the course instructor, and the students’ reflective journals. Archived course documents, including transcripts of threaded discussions and student Web pages, were secondary data sources. Content analysis of the data indicated that these students used many traditional SRL strategies, but they also adapted planning, organization, environmental structuring, help seeking, monitoring, record keeping, and self-reflection strategies in ways that were unique to the Web-based learning environment. The data also suggested that important motivational influences on SRL strategy use—self-efficacy, goal orientation, interest, and attributions—were shaped largely by student successes in managing the technical and social environment of the course. Important environmental influences on SRL strategy use included instructor support, peer support, and course design. Implications for online course instructors and designers, and suggestions for future research are offered

Helical Tubes in Crowded Environments

When placed in a crowded environment, a semi-flexible tube is forced to fold so as to make a more compact shape. One compact shape that often arises in nature is the tight helix, especially when the tube thickness is of comparable size to the tube length. In this paper we use an excluded volume effect to model the effects of crowding. This gives us a measure of compactness for configurations of the tube, which we use to look at structures of the semi-flexible tube that minimize the excluded volume. We focus most of our attention on the helix and which helical geometries are most compact. We found that helices of specific pitch to radius ratio 2.512 to be optimally compact. This is the same geometry that minimizes the global curvature of the curve defining the tube. We further investigate the effects of adding a bending energy or multiple tubes to begin to explore the more complete space of possible geometries a tube could form.Comment: 10 page

Effect of Spray-Dried Plasma and Dried Porcine Solubles on the Growth Performance of Weanling Pigs Raised in Different Health-Status Environments

Spray-dried plasma can advantageously replace whey on a protein basis in Phase I diets for early-weaned pigs, although less so in a ‘clean’ than in a ‘dirty’ environment. Contrary to previous trials, growth performance of weanling pigs was not affected when dried porcine solubles replaced whey protein

Constructive algebraic renormalization of the abelian Higgs-Kibble model

We propose an algorithm, based on Algebraic Renormalization, that allows the restoration of Slavnov-Taylor invariance at every order of perturbation expansion for an anomaly-free BRS invariant gauge theory. The counterterms are explicitly constructed in terms of a set of one-particle-irreducible Feynman amplitudes evaluated at zero momentum (and derivatives of them). The approach is here discussed in the case of the abelian Higgs-Kibble model, where the zero momentum limit can be safely performed. The normalization conditions are imposed by means of the Slavnov-Taylor invariants and are chosen in order to simplify the calculation of the counterterms. In particular within this model all counterterms involving BRS external sources (anti-fields) can be put to zero with the exception of the fermion sector.Comment: Jul, 1998, 31 page

New Generic Ringdown Frequencies at the Birth of a Kerr Black Hole

We discuss a new ringdown frequency mode for vacuum perturbations of the Kerr black hole. We evolve initial data for the vacuum radial Teukolsky equation using a near horizon approximation, and find a frequency mode analogous to that found in a recent study of radiation generated by a plunging particle close to the Kerr horizon. We discuss our results in the context of that study. We also explore the utility of this mode by fitting a numerical waveform with a combination of the usual quasi-normal modes (QNMs) and the new oscillation frequency.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures. Numerical analysis corrected, references added; reflects published versio