To Learn or not to Learn: On the Importance of Mode Switching in Educational Wargames

Conventional wisdom holds that educational wargames come with certain challenges – factors that can potentially hinder, rather than increase, learning – and that these must be mitigated. In this article, we argue that so-called challenges are unproblematic, even desirable, during the wargame. Underpinning this contention is the premise that learning requires a certain mode, and that in educational wargaming, two distinct modes are necessary: one in the wargame, and one in the debrief. Leaning on the pedagogical theory of John Dewey, we distinguish between the mode of experience during the game, and the mode of reflection after the game. What are traditionally conceived of as challenges are, in our mode-based framework, necessary factors in order to fully enter the mode of experience. What can hinder learning, however, is if students do not switch from the mode of experience to the mode of reflection after the game. Based on previous research, our own experiences conducting wargames, and interviews with students and professionals on learning through educational wargames, we suggest strategies for ensuring the mode switch from wargame to debrief, and draw implications for the development of wargaming as a social science method.publishedVersio

Counsellors perceptions of the phenomenon of concentration difficulties

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North Dakota Leadership Training Boosts Confidence and Involvement

Effective leadership is critical for communities as they work to maintain their vitality and sustainability for years to come. The purpose of the study reported here was to assess confidence levels and community engagement of community leadership program participants in North Dakota State University Extension programs. Through a survey administered to 196 program participants, a statistically significant increase was shown in self-confidence as well as in community organizational involvement and leadership

School fruit scheme and diet habits

Bacheloroppgave faglærerutdanning i kroppsøving og idrettsfag, 2014Problemområde: Overvekt og fedme er stadig et økende problem blant den norske befolkningen. Skolefruktordningen er derfor et av mange forebyggende tiltak i den norske skolen. Jeg ønsker å finne ut om skolefruktordningen bidrar til å endre inntaket av frukt og grønnsaker, i tillegg til om sosial klasse er med på å bestemme elevenes kostholdsvaner. Problemstilling: «Hvordan kan skolefruktordningen bidra til å endre inntak av frukt og grønnsaker for grunnskoleelever?» Metode: En systematisk litteraturstudie som metode er valgt i min fordypningsoppgave. Det blir presentert ulike typer metode, i tillegg til mitt valg og begrunnelse for valget. Avslutningsvis blir benyttede inklusjons- og eksklusjonskriterier beskrevet. Resultat: Skolefruktordning viser seg å ha en økende effekt på grunnskoleelevers inntak av frukt og grønnsaker. Forskjellene er ikke like signifikante som forventet. I tillegg har sosial klasse en stor betydning for inntak av frukt og grønnsaker. Foreldrenes sosiale status er utslagsgivende for elevenes inntak

A stochastic model for contact surfaces at polymer interfaces subjected to an electrical field

Morphology of the contact area between solid insulation materials ultimately determines the short- and long-term electrical properties of the complete insulation system. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a statistical model to examine the real area of contact between solid dielectric surfaces and secondly to verify and correlate the model outputs with experiments. The model computes the real area of contact, number of contact spots and average cavity size at the interface as a function of elasticity, contact force, and surface roughness. Then, using the average cavity size and the Paschen's law, the discharge inception field of the cavity (CDIE) is estimated. AC breakdown strength (BDS) testing of solid-solid interfaces was carried out, where cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) samples with four different surface roughnesses were tested at various contact pressures. Following the increased contact force, the calculated average cavity size decreased by a factor of 4.08-4.82 from the roughest to the smoothest surface, corresponding to increased CDIEs by a factor of 2.01-2.56. Likewise, the experimentally obtained BDS values augmented by a factor of 1.4-1.7 when the contact pressure was elevated from 0.5 MPa to 1.16 MPa. A linear correlation between the CDIE and BDS was assumed, yielding a correlation coefficient varying within 0.8-1.3. When the 90% confidence intervals were considered, the range reduced to 0.86-1.05. This correlation suggests that interfacial breakdown phenomenon is strongly related to the interfacial cavity discharge. Hence, the proposed model is verified with experiments.A stochastic model for contact surfaces at polymer interfaces subjected to an electrical fieldsubmittedVersio

A systems biology model of the regulatory network in Populus leaves reveals interacting regulators and conserved regulation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Green plant leaves have always fascinated biologists as hosts for photosynthesis and providers of basic energy to many food webs. Today, comprehensive databases of gene expression data enable us to apply increasingly more advanced computational methods for reverse-engineering the regulatory network of leaves, and to begin to understand the gene interactions underlying complex emergent properties related to stress-response and development. These new systems biology methods are now also being applied to organisms such as <it>Populus</it>, a woody perennial tree, in order to understand the specific characteristics of these species.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present a systems biology model of the regulatory network of <it>Populus </it>leaves. The network is reverse-engineered from promoter information and expression profiles of leaf-specific genes measured over a large set of conditions related to stress and developmental. The network model incorporates interactions between regulators, such as synergistic and competitive relationships, by evaluating increasingly more complex regulatory mechanisms, and is therefore able to identify new regulators of leaf development not found by traditional genomics methods based on pair-wise expression similarity. The approach is shown to explain available gene function information and to provide robust prediction of expression levels in new data. We also use the predictive capability of the model to identify condition-specific regulation as well as conserved regulation between <it>Populus </it>and <it>Arabidopsis</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We outline a computationally inferred model of the regulatory network of <it>Populus </it>leaves, and show how treating genes as interacting, rather than individual, entities identifies new regulators compared to traditional genomics analysis. Although systems biology models should be used with care considering the complexity of regulatory programs and the limitations of current genomics data, methods describing interactions can provide hypotheses about the underlying cause of emergent properties and are needed if we are to identify target genes other than those constituting the "low hanging fruit" of genomic analysis.</p

Full-scale case study of a road crossing thermal bottleneck in buried MV cable installation

Infrastructures such as road crossings, are often limiting the ampacity of a cable link due to poor thermal properties. In order to fully utilize the true loading capacity of the cable, thermal modelling with correct input parameters should be applied. In this work, a full scale artificial road crossing have been constructed and characterized, and temperature measurements have been compared with calculations performed according to IEC 60287 and finite-element analysis (FEA). It was found that calculations according to IEC provide a good fit to measured temperature profiles by adjusting the unknown mean thermal resistivity of the material layers outside the pipe. The thermal properties of road construction materials can be challenging to measure, and in order to provide accurate ampacity calculations further work should be focused on this.publishedVersio

New tools and expanded data analysis capabilities at the protein structure prediction center

We outline the main tasks performed by the Protein Structure Prediction Center in support of the CASP7 experiment and provide a brief review of the major measures used in the automatic evaluation of predictions. We describe in more detail the software developed to facilitate analysis of modeling success over and beyond the available templates and the adopted Java-based tool enabling visualization of multiple structural superpositions between target and several models/templates. We also give an overview of the CASP infrastructure provided by the Center and discuss the organization of the results web pages available through http://predictioncenter.or

Operasjonalisering av urfolksrettigheter i samiske barnevernstjenester. En kvalitativ studie i et organisasjonsteoretisk perspektiv

Samiske barn har særlige rettigheter i kraft av sin urfolkstatus som er nedfelt i internasjonale konvensjoner og i norsk lovverk. Kommunene i det samiske forvaltningsområdet har et særlig ansvar for å ivareta disse rettighetene. Studien undersøker hvordan barnevernstjenestene i samiske kommuner operasjonaliserer begrepet urfolksrettigheter, og hvordan det gjør seg gjeldende i barnevernfaglig praksis. Det er tatt utgangspunkt i organisasjonsteorier, særlig institusjonelt og instrumentelt perspektiv. Sosialfaglige modeller og teorier er trukket inn. Undersøkelsen er basert på forskningsintervjuer med ansatte i barnevernstjenestene i tre samiske kommuner, samt fylkesmannen, Sametinget og fagfolk fra kompetansemiljøet med særlig kjennskap til samisk barnevernsarbeid. Studien har vist at både strukturelle og kulturelle forhold kan forklare det manglende samiske fokuset i barnevernstjenestene. Den har pekt at norsk lovverk bare i liten grad korrelerer med de internasjonale konvensjonene, og at samiske barns nasjonale rettigheter i barnevernstjenesten hovedsakelig er forankret i forskrift til lov. Den har synliggjort at barnevernets arbeid med samiske barn i stor utstrekning er tilfeldig, og at det er lite bevissthet om samisk kultur og samiske perspektiver i barnevernstjenestene. Studien viser at det finnes få, om noen, fagsystemer relatert til samiske barn og familier. Avslutningsvis argumenterer jeg for at det må en overordnet offentlig innsats til for å bedre samiske barns vilkår i barnevernstjenestene

Experiences With cable faults located at metallic screen connections

Overheating of metallic ground screen connections at accessories of single core cables are the root cause of severe insulation failures in the distribution network. The overheating is due to a high transition resistance of the connections combined with high induced currents in the ground screens during operation. For copper screened cables equipped with a metallic laminate, overheating causing failures are also observed randomly along the cables often at locations close to cable straps or cleats. Currently there are no international standards with complete tests to determine the ampacity of ground screen connections for different cable system designs making future installations more reliable. Furthermore, product information from the suppliers indicates that basis for design and test criteria is not uniform, and tests are not performed concerning relevant operation and fault scenarios. A research project is launched in Norway, to test different ground screen connections and then to provide guidelines to ensure proper future installations. A new CIRED working group is proposed to provide recommendations for complete tests of ground screen connections lacking in current international standards and brochures.publishedVersio