Parameter Selection and Pre-Conditioning for a Graph Form Solver

In a recent paper, Parikh and Boyd describe a method for solving a convex optimization problem, where each iteration involves evaluating a proximal operator and projection onto a subspace. In this paper we address the critical practical issues of how to select the proximal parameter in each iteration, and how to scale the original problem variables, so as the achieve reliable practical performance. The resulting method has been implemented as an open-source software package called POGS (Proximal Graph Solver), that targets multi-core and GPU-based systems, and has been tested on a wide variety of practical problems. Numerical results show that POGS can solve very large problems (with, say, more than a billion coefficients in the data), to modest accuracy in a few tens of seconds. As just one example, a radiation treatment planning problem with around 100 million coefficients in the data can be solved in a few seconds, as compared to around one hour with an interior-point method.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figure, 1 open source implementatio

Exploring Knowledge through Peer Tutoring in a Transitional Learning Community: An Alternative Way of Teaching Counseling Skills to Students in Social Work Education

Learning to be a professional child welfare worker involves learning counseling skills. In Norway, these skills have long been taught by teachers, but recent reforms in higher education initiated by the Bologna Process encourage giving more responsibility to students for their own learning. This paper describes one of these new initiatives—a peer tutoring program of counseling skills for students training to be child protection workers. Using the results of a series of questionnaires administered to and qualitative interviews with students who participated in the program from 2003 to 2009, this paper provides a summary account of the experiences of student tutees and tutors in the program— especially their evaluations of this alternative way of learning counseling skills. Analyses of the qualitative and quantitative data yielded by the study indicated that peer tutoring programs led to a number of positive effects, especially in terms of increased feelings of security and freedom in exploring different fields of knowledge. In addition, the program’s collaborative and dialogical processes worked to incorporate tutors and tutees into a transitional learning community

Hva slags caseoppgaver inviterer til studentaktivitet og interaksjon?

Artikkelen omhandler bruk av ulike caseoppgaver som utgangspunktfor studentaktive læringsformer. Caseoppgaver har vært relatert til fysioterapiteori, et av kjernefagene i andre stlldieår. Artikkelen belyser hvilke oppgavetyper som er benyttet til å skrive seg inn på det fysioterapifaglige territorium. I den sammenheng drøftes hvilke typer oppgaver som synes å gi det beste grunnlaget for faglig diskusjon og klinisk resonnering

The Return of Sense on the Scene of Translation Studies in the Light of the Cognitive Blending Theory

The aim of this paper is to revitalize the Paris school model of deverbalization and reverbalization of sense in translation, i.e. the representation of sense as a mental image, in light of the cognitive blending theory. Through sample examples of online process data taken from the concurrent think-aloud protocols of two experienced professional translators and the keylogged files on their writing processes, I will give evidence of the imaginative and creative work pertaining to their construals of sense, before showing that the blending theory model represents sense as the result of mapping concepts into other concepts and as relations between mental spaces.L’objectif du présent article est de donner un nouveau souffle au modèle de déverbalisation et de reverbalisation du sens de l’École de Paris – modèle qui consiste à représenter le sens comme une entité mentale – à la lumière de la théorie cognitive de l’intégration conceptuelle. Au moyen d’exemples puisés dans les données processuelles in vivo de deux experts-traducteurs constituées par leurs protocoles de verbalisation et leurs activités d’écriture informatisées, je décèle l’imagination et la créativité déployées pour construire le sens, avant de montrer comment le modèle cognitiviste permet de rendre compte du sens en termes de projection domaniale et de relations entre divers espaces mentaux

La démarche de l’expert-traducteur face à un problème de reformulation

Dans quels cas et pour quelles raisons l’expert-traducteur ressent-il un blocage dans la phase de reformulation ? Comment s’y prend-il pour débloquer la situation ? Une analyse des données in vivo de trois professionnelles norvégiennes de la traduction aux prises avec trois énoncés extraits d’un texte original français permet de montrer que la visualisation du sens joue un rôle essentiel dans la démarche cognitive de déblocage.When and why does the professional translator experience problems when rendering the sense of utterances in his translation? How does he go about solving a reformulation problem? An analysis of on-line process data from three experienced Norwegian professional translators grappling with three utterances in a French original text shows that visualisation plays a key role in problem-solving on the level of reformulation

Students' reflections on shadowing interprofessional teamwork : a Norwegian case study

This article reports the students’ reflections on interprofessional teamwork during brief exposures to real-life experiences in hospitals or home-based rehabilitation service. Each of the 10 interprofessional groups, comprising three students, followed a rehabilitation team for a day. The composition of each student group correlated with the rehabilitation team. Data were collected from interviews with the student groups and subjected to a thematic analysis. The following four main themes were identified for which the students seemed to affect collaboration: sharing knowledge; team setting and position within the organisation; patient centred focus; and challenges in crossing professional borders when performing tasks. Each of these themes is presented and discussed in relation to the educational literature. In conclusion, the data suggest that a well organized, one-day observation-based learning experience helped to motivate students and helped to enable them to relate theory and practice

Transnational Labour Solidarity and Social Movement Unionism: Insights from and beyond a Women Workers' Strike in Turkey

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Through an analysis of solidarity across borders and social groups in connection with and beyond a strike on the part primarily of women workers at a foreignowned factory in Turkey’s Antalya Free Zone, this article contributes to the debate on the two union renewal strategies of transnational labour solidarity and coalition building with social movements. In the case at hand, the extensive strike-related support on the part of external unions and the women’s movement illustrates the positive difference that solidarity practices can make. However, looking beyond the strike itself, the case points to significant challenges related to the development of deeper and more proactive solidarity across borders and social groups

If I had a rich picture… : insights into the use of “soft” methodological tools to support the development of interprofessional education

This paper describes a methodological experiment that aimed to test a small number of tools borrowed from Soft Systems Methodology. Those tools were intended to support action research for a project in interprofessional educational development. The intention with using those tools was two-fold: first, they were expected to help structure the analysis of the problem situation that the project was to address; second, they were to facilitate and document the project management process itself, by allowing for the different voices within the interprofessional project team to be heard. The paper relates how the tools functioned relatively successfully as analytical devices for the action researcher, but did not significantly contribute to further interprofessional collaboration or enhance dialogue between the action researcher and the project members. Issues of how to use the tools to support more effectively the existing dialogue across professional cultures and traditions are discussed

Physical activity and overweight : experiences of children and youth in a Norwegian project

Physiotherapists have paid great attention to the problems associated with overweight among children and youth. Clinicians have started programs to support the target group in their efforts to become more physically active, thus preventing such problems from arising. The aim of the study has been to investigate the experiences of the participants in these programs. A phenomenological research design was chosen. Fourteen children and youth in one of these programs volunteered as informants. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were interpreted using a multistep thematic analysis model. The participants considered the inclusion of a friend in the group as one of their requirements for participating in the program. Most of the participants enjoyed and coped with the physical activities, although a few disliked some of the ball games. The participants concluded that their endurance had improved and they had become physically stronger. Most of them were also engaged in a variety of activities outside the program. The children and youth asserted that they had benefi ted from participating in this physical activity program, which they experienced as enjoyable. The best long-term result is probably achieved when child, parents, school, voluntary organizations and community collaborate in order to strengthen the physical and social skills of children

Caserapport : studentenes kritiske vurdering av egen fysioterapi praksis – en relevant metode for bacheloroppgaven

Artikkelen belyser og argumenterer for å bruke caserapporter som et alternativ til de forskningsmetoder som tradisjonelt har vært benyttet i bacheloroppgaven i fysioterapi i tredje studieår. Caserapportens relevans beskrives i lys av kunnskap om klinisk resonnering. Metoden gir fysioterapistudenter mulighet til å videreutvikle ferdigheter og forståelse i utøvelse av pasient-/klientrettet arbeid som er forankret i egen praksis. Artikkelen løfter fram problemstillinger knyttet til studenters vurderinger av ulike valg og prioriteringer i utøvelsen av kunnskapsbasert praksis. Med utgangspunkt i en caserapport illustreres noen utfordringer med å forene forskningsbasert kunnskap, erfaringskunnskap og pasientkunnskap på en konstruktiv måte. Artikkelen beskriver også et eksempel på en caserapport som er et samarbeidsprosjekt mellom to studenter. Den ene har behandlet en pasient med kroniske smerter, mens den andre har fungert som en ”kritisk venn” som har diskutert og stilt flere kritiske spørsmål som gir grunnlag for refleksjon over praksis og utvikling av økt kunnskap om klinisk resonnering