SCOF: A Standardised, Customisable Online Feedback Tool

Increasing pressures on staff, combined with increased requests for feedback from students mean that there is less time to do more things. Investigation into potential methods to assist the staff of the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at City University London in their feedback activities identified that a combination of bespoke feedback combined with a standardised scheme (or rubric) may give the best results. The stand-alone SCOF tool was developed to address this observation and allows staff to create formatted feedback sheets quickly in different environments, using tools ranging from desktop computers to mobile telephones and tablets. It is currently about to undergo an institution-wide evaluation and will subsequently be made freely available to other institutions. This paper outlines the requirements of the tool, its usage, evaluation progress and future work to be undertaken, and includes a link to a public demonstration version of the tool

Integrating Flickr-based Images into Moodle to Increase Visual Appeal and Dynamism of Teaching Spaces

Images have long been shown to be an important tool for both learning and helping to develop community; in fact, there is at least one well-known English proverb that attests to this. One reason is that, used well, an image can remove the ambiguity that can be present in verbal and written communication. Research has also shown that imagery has a more direct route into our memory than the written word, which is perceived as an image and converted into meaning by the brain. This paper outlines the development of a tool (a ‘Block’ in Moodle terms) that allows the presentation of Flickr-stored photos within the Moodle Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for setting general context of a module, describes the initial uses of the Block and suggests further uses for the future. The paper concludes with further work to be conducted

Measurements and physical-layer modelling of transmission loss for gas turbine engine sensor networks

The aim of this study is to extract a physical-layer wireless channel model from a set of channel measurements, in support of the wider, collaborative, WIDAGATE project to assess the potential of wireless sensor networks for the condition monitoring of gas turbine engines. The collaborative partners in WIDAGATE are Rolls-Royce, Selex and University College London. The resulting model is being incorporated into a complete system protocol stack as part of the wider project. The physical layer channel model incorporates interference [1] and noise in addition to signal transmission characteristics

Empirical modelling and simulation of transmission loss between wireless sensor nodes in gas turbine engines

Transmission loss measurements between a grid of hypothetical WSN node locations on the surface of a gas turbine engine are reported for eight frequencies at 1 GHz intervals in the frequency range 3.0 to 11.0 GHz. An empirical transmission loss model is derived from the measurements. The model is incorporated into an existing system channel model implemented using Simulink as part of a wider project concerning the development of WSNs for the testing and condition monitoring of gas turbine engines

A tale of one city: intra-institutional variations in migrating VLE platform

City University London committed in 2009 to make Moodle the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at the core of a new Strategic Learning Environment (SLE) comprised of VLE, externally facing website and related systems such as video streaming and virtual classrooms. Previously, the WebCT VLE had been separate from most of the other systems at the institution with very limited connections to other tools. Each of the schools within the institution was able to pursue their own strategy and timeframe for the migration and embedding of Moodle within their subject areas, within an absolute limit of 2 years. This paper outlines the approaches taken by the various schools, highlighting similarities and differences, and draws out common aspects from the project to make recommendations for institutions seeking to undertake similar migrations

Tribute to the Late Justice Thurgood Marshall

Tribute

A common garden design reveals population-specific variability in potential impacts of hybridisation between populations of farmed and wild Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L

Released individuals can have negative impacts on native populations through various mechanisms; including competition, disease transfer and introduction of maladapted gene-complexes. Previous studies indicate that the level of farmed Atlantic salmon introgression in native populations is population-specific. However few studies have explored the potential role of population diversity or river characteristics, such as temperature, on the consequences of hybridisation. We compared freshwater growth of multiple families derived from two farmed, five wild, and two F1 hybrid salmon populations at three contrasting temperatures (7°C, 12°C, and 16°C) in a common garden experiment. As expected, farmed salmon outgrew wild salmon at all temperatures, with hybrids displaying intermediate growth. However, differences in growth were population-specific and some wild populations performed better than others relative to the hybrid and farmed populations at certain temperatures. Therefore, the competitive balance between farmed and wild salmon may depend both on the thermal profile of the river and the genetic characteristics of the respective farmed and wild strains. While limited to F1 hybridisation, the present study shows the merits in adopting a more complex spatially resolved approach to risk management of local populations

Modeling CO Emission: II. The Physical Characteristics that Determine the X factor in Galactic Molecular Clouds

We investigate how the X factor, the ratio of H_2 column density (NH2) to velocity-integrated CO intensity (W), is determined by the physical properties of gas in model molecular clouds (MCs). We perform radiative transfer calculations on chemical-MHD models to compute X. Using integrated NH2 and W reproduces the limited range in X found in observations, resulting in a mean value X=2\times10^20 s/cm^2/K^1/km^1 from the Galactic MC model. However, in limited velocity intervals, X can take on a much larger range due to CO line saturation. Thus, X strongly depends on both the range in gas velocities and volume densities. The temperature (T) variations within individual MCs do not strongly affect X, as dense gas contributes most to setting X. For fixed velocity and density structure, gas with higher T has higher W, yielding X ~ T^-1/2 for T~20-100 K. We demonstrate that the linewidth-size scaling relation does not influence the X factor - only the range in velocities is important. Clouds with larger linewidths, regardless of the linewidth-size relation, have a higher W, corresponding to a lower value of X, scaling roughly as X ~ sigma^-1/2. The "mist" model, consisting of optically thick cloudlets with well-separated velocities, does not accurately reflect the conditions in a turbulent MC. We propose that the observed cloud-average values of X ~ XGal is simply a result of the limited range in NH2, temperatures, and velocities found in Galactic MCs - a ~constant value of X therefore does not require any linewidth-size relation, or that MCs are virialized objects. Since gas properties likely differ (slightly) between clouds, masses derived through a standard X should only be considered as a rough first estimate. For temperatures T~10-20 K, velocity dispersions ~1-6 km/s, and NH2~2-20\times10^21 cm^-2, we find cloud-averaged X ~ 2-4\times10^20 s/cm^2/K^1/km^1 for Solar-metallicity models.Comment: 24 pages, including 21 Figures, Accepted to MNRA

The WW Boson Loop Background to H -> ZZ at Photon-photon Colliders

We have performed a complete one-loop calculation of $\gamma \gamma \rightarrow ZZ$ in the Standard Model, including both gauge bosons and fermions in the loop. We confirm the large irreducible continuum background from the $W$-boson loop found by Jikia. We have included the photon-photon luminosity, and find that the continuum background of transverse $Z$ boson pairs prohibits finding a heavy Higgs with mass \gtap 350 GeV in this decay mode.Comment: 16 pages + 4 PS figures included (uuencoded), MAD/PH/77