Dungeness crab research program

In 1974, the California State Legislature, recognizing the problem of low yields from the Dungeness crab resource of central California, directed the Department of Fish and Game to conduct an investigation into the causes of the decline. The Operations Research Branch of the Department has conducted preliminary studies and field operations necessary to formulate the Dungeness Crab Research Program. The objectives, research design, and work plans are presented for a 4-year program from July 1, 1975 through August 31, 1979. (38pp.

What is the problem to which interactive multimedia is the solution?

This is something of an unusual paper. It serves as both the reason for and the result of a small number of leading academics in the field, coming together to focus on the question that serves as the title to this paper: What is the problem to which interactive multimedia is the solution? Each of the authors addresses this question from their own viewpoint, offering informed insights into the development, implementation and evaluation of multimedia. The result of their collective work was also the focus of a Western Australian Institute of Educational Research seminar, convened at Edith Cowan University on 18 October, 1994. The question posed is deliberately rhetorical - it is asked to allow those represented here to consider what they think are the significant issues in the fast-growing field of multimedia. More directly, the question is also asked here because nobody else has considered it worth asking: for many multimedia is done because it is technically possible, not because it offers anything that is of value or provides the solution to a particular problem. The question, then, is answered in various ways by each of the authors involved and each, in their own way, consider a range of fundamental issues concerning the nature, place and use of multimedia - both in education and in society generally. By way of an introduction, the following provides a unifying context for the various contributions made here

Issues of partial credit in mathematical assessment by computer

The CALM Project for Computer Aided Learning in Mathematics has operated at Heriot‐Watt University since 1985. From the beginning CALM has featured assessment in its programs (Beevers, Cherry, Foster and McGuire, 1991), and enabled both students and teachers to view progress in formative assessment The computer can play a role in at least four types of assessment: diagnostic, self‐test, continuous and grading assessment. The TLTP project Mathwise employs the computer in three of these roles. In 1994 CALM reported on an educational experiment in which the computer was used for the first time to grade, in part, the learning of a large class of service mathematics students (Beevers, McGuire, Stirling and Wild ,1995), using the Mathwise assessment template. At that time the main issues identified were those of ‘partial credit’ and communication between the student and the computer. These educational points were addressed in the next phase of the CALM Project in which the commercial testing program Interactive PastPapers was developed. The main aim of this paper is to describe how Interactive Past Papers has been able to incorporate some approaches to partial credit which has helped to alleviate student worries on these issues. Background information on other features in Interactive Past Papers is also included to provide context for the discussion

Physical interpretation of the near-infrared colours of low-redshift galaxies

We use empirical techniques to interpret the near-infrared (near-IR) colours of a sample of 5800 galaxies drawn from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) main spectroscopic sample with YJHK photometry from the United Kingdom Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) data release 1. Our study focuses on the inner 3 arcsec regions of the galaxies sampled by the SDSS fibre spectra. We study correlations between near-IR colours measured within this aperture and physical parameters derived from the spectra. These parameters include specific star formation rate (SFR), stellar age, metallicity and dust attenuation. All correlations are analysed for samples of galaxies that are closely matched in redshift, in stellar mass and in concentration index. Whereas more strongly star-forming galaxies have bluer optical colours, the opposite is true at near-IR wavelengths ¿ galaxies with higher specific SFR have redder near-IR colours. This result agrees qualitatively with the predictions of models in which thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars dominate the H- and K-band light of a galaxy following a burst of star formation. We also find a surprisingly strong correlation between the near-IR colours of star-forming galaxies and their dust attenuation as measured from the Balmer decrement. Unlike optical colours, however, near-IR colours exhibit very little dependence on galaxy inclination. This suggests that the correlation of near-IR colours with dust attenuation arises because TP-AGB stars are the main source of dust in the galaxy. Finally, we compare the near-IR colours of the galaxies in our sample to the predictions of three different stellar population models: the Bruzual & Charlot model, a preliminary version of a new model under development which includes a new prescription for AGB star evolution, and the Maraston model

Discriminants, symmetrized graph monomials, and sums of squares

Motivated by the necessities of the invariant theory of binary forms J. J. Sylvester constructed in 1878 for each graph with possible multiple edges but without loops its symmetrized graph monomial which is a polynomial in the vertex labels of the original graph. In the 20-th century this construction was studied by several authors. We pose the question for which graphs this polynomial is a non-negative resp. a sum of squares. This problem is motivated by a recent conjecture of F. Sottile and E. Mukhin on discriminant of the derivative of a univariate polynomial, and an interesting example of P. and A. Lax of a graph with 4 edges whose symmetrized graph monomial is non-negative but not a sum of squares. We present detailed information about symmetrized graph monomials for graphs with four and six edges, obtained by computer calculations

Computer assessment in mathematics

This thesis investigates methods of assessing students' mathematical ability by using the computer. It starts by reviewing the general types of assessment within mathematics educational software and then describes some different ways of presenting the assessment on the computer by the use of varying types of questions. In Chapter 2 there is a review of the literature and research conducted in the area of computer assessment of mathematics. In particular, the most prevalent dilemmas of computer aided learning and computer aided assessment are highlighted whilst looking forward at how the contents of further chapters in the thesis can help in addressing some of these difficulties. The following chapter gives an historical account of how the CALM(1) software has addressed some of the inherent difficulties of assessment and highlights the ways in which some of these hurdles have been overcome. The shortfalls of CALM are described and, where relevant, pointers to the parts of thesis which tackle these shortfalls are given. In particular, the work in Chapter 4 undertakes an improvement in the way simple mathematical expressions(2) can be handled as it shows how binary tree constructions can be utilised within an educational environment. Chapter 5 tests out two applications of the binary tree structures with the creation of a tool to aid student-computer communication of mathematics and by providing a method of comparing student-set questions against a true answer. The following chapter describes an educational experiment which set out to show how a computer can be used to assess students' mathematical ability during a formal university examination. It deals with very important educational issues which arise when performing such examinations and gives conclusions as to their educational validity. In particular, issues of student input, partial credit, objectivity, consistency, flexibility and efficiency are considered along with the impact that this research could have for future testing of mathematics. The final chapter describes how the thesis has been instrumental in further research and development within the field of computer assessment of mathematics. (1)CALM is the acronym for the Computer Aided Learning in Mathematics project at the Department of Mathematics, Heriot- Watt University. (2)in this thesis, the word expression is taken to be a mathematical entity which does not contain any comparison operators

Plants from the park : Establishing community harvesting of plants as a conservation tool at Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks, Uganda

It is now accepted that communities surrounding national parks in developing countries should benefit from conservation if the parks, and their constituent biodiversity, are to have a secure long-term future. It has also been accepted as morally questionable for communities living next to parks to pay the costs for national and international biodiversity conservation, and at the same time being excluded from any level of decision making regarding the management of those parks. Strategies to achieve conservation with equity include community involvement in park management and mechanisms to share conservation benefits

Dynamical Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Theory of Vortices in Bose-Einstein Condensates at Finite Temperature

We present a method utilizing the continuity equation for the condensate density to make predictions of the precessional frequency of single off-axis vortices and of vortex arrays in Bose-Einstein condensates at finite temperature. We also present an orthogonalized Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) formalism. We solve the continuity equation for the condensate density self-consistently with the orthogonalized HFB equations, and find stationary solutions in the frame rotating at this frequency. As an example of the utility of this formalism we obtain time-independent solutions for quasi-two-dimensional rotating systems in the co-rotating frame. We compare these results with time-dependent predictions where we simulate stirring of the condensate.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl

The transient response of global-mean precipitation to increasing carbon dioxide levels

The transient response of global-mean precipitation to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels of 1% yr(-1) is investigated in 13 fully coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) and compared to a period of stabilization. During the period of stabilization, when carbon dioxide levels are held constant at twice their unperturbed level and the climate left to warm, precipitation increases at a rate of similar to 2.4% per unit of global-mean surface-air-temperature change in the AOGCMs. However, when carbon dioxide levels are increasing, precipitation increases at a smaller rate of similar to 1.5% per unit of global-mean surface-air-temperature change. This difference can be understood by decomposing the precipitation response into an increase from the response to the global surface-temperature increase (and the climate feedbacks it induces), and a fast atmospheric response to the carbon dioxide radiative forcing that acts to decrease precipitation. According to the multi-model mean, stabilizing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide would lead to a greater rate of precipitation change per unit of global surface-temperature change

On a generalized quantum SWAP gate

The SWAP gate plays a central role in network designs for qubit quantum computation. However, there has been a view to generalize qubit quantum computing to higher dimensional quantum systems. In this paper we construct a generalized SWAP gate using only instances of the generalized controlled-NOT gate to cyclically permute the states of d qudits for d prime