Let them Moodle: Utilizing an open source learning management system to extend the English classroom

The purpose of the project was to install a Moodle installation on a server and deploy it to select teachers while developing a series of training modules to help assist teachers to utilize Moodle as an online supplement to their classroom teaching. The goal was to give the teachers involved an additional outlet for learning beyond the classroom setting. Specifically, this project centered on creating video tutorials and a demo class aimed to help teachers utilize this powerful medium. Moodle activities are items such as blogs, forums, wikis, and quizzes among many other learner-centric technologies. The participants to pilot this project were found by asking for volunteers at an English department meeting at Hesperia High School in Southern California. Three teachers volunteered. With the researcher included, this would put the pilot participants at four teachers with five classes each

Searching for the 3.5 keV Line in the Stacked Suzaku Observations of Galaxy Clusters

We perform a detailed study of the stacked Suzaku observations of 47 galaxy clusters, spanning a redshift range of 0.01-0.45, to search for the unidentified 3.5 keV line. This sample provides an independent test for the previously detected line. We detect only a 2sigma-significant spectral feature at 3.5 keV in the spectrum of the full sample. When the sample is divided into two subsamples (cool-core and non-cool core clusters), cool-core subsample shows no statistically significant positive residuals at the line energy. A very weak (2sigma-confidence) spectral feature at 3.5 keV is permitted by the data from the non-cool core clusters sample. The upper limit on a neutrino decay mixing angle from the full Suzaku sample is consistent with the previous detections in the stacked XMM-Newton sample of galaxy clusters (which had a higher statistical sensitivity to faint lines), M31, and Galactic Center at a 90% confidence level. However, the constraint from the present sample, which does not include the Perseus cluster, is in tension with previously reported line flux observed in the core of the Perseus cluster with XMM-Newton and Suzaku.Comment: ApJ in press, 9 pages, 3 figure

Automated construction of evolutionary algorithm operators for the bi-objective water distribution network design problem using a genetic programming based hyper-heuristic approach

The water distribution network (WDN) design problem is primarily concerned with finding the optimal pipe sizes that provide the best service for minimal cost; a problem of continuing importance both in the UK and internationally. Consequently, many methods for solving this problem have been proposed in the literature, often using tailored, hand-crafted approaches to more effectively optimise this difficult problem. In this paper we investigate a novel hyper-heuristic approach that uses genetic programming (GP) to evolve mutation operators for evolutionary algorithms (EAs) which are specialised for a bi-objective formulation of the WDN design problem (minimising WDN cost and head deficit). Once generated, the evolved operators can then be used ad infinitum in any EA on any WDN to improve performance. A novel multi-objective method is demonstrated that evolves a set of mutation operators for one training WDN. The best operators are evaluated in detail by applying them to three test networks of varying complexity. An experiment is conducted in which 83 operators are evolved. The best 10 are examined in detail. One operator, GP1, is shown to be especially effective and incorporates interesting domain-specific learning (pipe smoothing) while GP5 demonstrates the ability of the method to find known, well-used operators like a Gaussian. © IWA Publishing 2014J.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Mouchel Ltd

Modeling the Effect of Images on Product Choices

Conjoint is one of the most popular methods in marketing research, widely used to understand how customers trade-off features of a product. Since product images have a strong influence on customer choice, it is natural to want to include images in conjoint studies, yet this has proven to be difficult, since images are difficult to parsimoniously characterize in the utility function. This paper proposes a novel approach to account for the effect of images on respondents’ choices, in which consumer heterogeneity in the appeal of the images is modeled through the covariance structure in a probit model. The covariance structure is informed by a separate task where respondents rate the images included in the study. In our application to midsize crossover vehicles, we show that our approach readily scales to a large number of images, fits better than several alternatives commonly used in practice, and makes more reasonable predictions about product substitution when a new product enters the market. We discuss how this approach could be used predict the effect of other difficult-to-characterize product attribute such as sound quality or taste on product choice

Novel Methods for Ranking District Metered Areas for Water Distribution Network Maintenance Scheduling

Computing and Control for the Water Industry conference 2011 (CCWI 2011), University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, 5 - 7 September 2011To prevent the accumulation of material in pipes which leads to the potential for discolouration events to occur, UK water companies often operate five year cleaning schedules. To organise the schedule District Metered Areas (DMAs), the case study water company assigns a score based on several key performance indicators and water quality levels, which are used to place each DMA into one of three categories: good, poor and urgent. This paper investigates alternative methods of ranking DMAs in order to generate better maintenance schedules. We demonstrate how DMAs can be both partially and totally ordered with methods from multi-objective optimisation, and show how it is possible to prioritise and progressively apply Discolouration Propensity Modelling (DPM) to help guide interventions in the most effective and efficient way. Results obtained from sample DMAs show a good correlation between the DPM scores and the rankings produced by the multiobjective methods. We apply both methods to water networks from a UK water company and demonstrate that used in combination the power index and DPM, have advantages over the current ranking method

RADIAL PROFILE OF THE 3.5 keV LINE OUT TO R 200 IN THE PERSEUS CLUSTER

The recent discovery of the unidentified emission line at 3.5 keV in galaxies and clusters has attracted great interest from the community. As the origin of the line remains uncertain, we study the surface brightness distribution of the line in the Perseus cluster since that information can be used to identify its origin. We examine the flux distribution of the 3.5 keV line in the deep Suzaku observations of the Perseus cluster in detail. The 3.5 keV line is observed in three concentric annuli in the central observations, although the observations of the outskirts of the cluster did not reveal such a signal. We establish that these detections and the upper limits from the non-detections are consistent with a dark matter decay origin. However, absence of positive detection in the outskirts is also consistent with some unknown astrophysical origin of the line in the dense gas of the Perseus core, as well as with a dark matter origin with a steeper dependence on mass than the dark matter decay. We also comment on several recently published analyses of the 3.5 keV line.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contracts NNX14AF78G and NNX123AE77G

The re-birth of the "beat": A hyperlocal online newsgathering model

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Journalism Practice, 6(5-6), 754 - 765, 2012, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17512786.2012.667279.Scholars have long lamented the death of the 'beat' in news journalism. Today's journalists generate more copy than they used to, a deluge of PR releases often keeping them in the office, and away from their communities. Consolidation in industry has dislodged some journalists from their local sources. Yet hyperlocal online activity is thriving if journalists have the time and inclination to engage with it. This paper proposes an exploratory, normative schema intended to help local journalists systematically map and monitor their own hyperlocal online communities and contacts, with the aim of re-establishing local news beats online as networks. This model is, in part, technologically-independent. It encompasses proactive and reactive news-gathering and forward planning approaches. A schema is proposed, developed upon suggested news-gathering frameworks from the literature. These experiences were distilled into an iterative, replicable schema for local journalism. This model was then used to map out two real-world 'beats' for local news-gathering. Journalists working within these local beats were invited to trial the models created. It is hoped that this research will empower journalists by improving their information auditing, and could help re-define journalists' relationship with their online audiences