1,593 research outputs found
The CEDAR Project
We describe the plans and objectives of the CEDAR project (Combined e-Science
Data Analysis Resource for High Energy Physics) newly funded by the PPARC
e-Science programme in the UK. CEDAR will combine the strengths of the well
established and widely used HEPDATA database of HEP data and the innovative
JetWeb data/Monte Carlo comparison facility, built on the HZTOOL package, and
will exploit developing grid technology. The current status and future plans of
both of these individual sub-projects within the CEDAR framework are described,
showing how they will cohesively provide (a) an extensive archive of Reaction
Data, (b) validation and tuning of Monte Carlo programs against these reaction
data sets, and (c) a validated code repository for a wide range of HEP code
such as parton distribution functions and other calculation codes used by
particle physicists. Once established it is envisaged CEDAR will become an
important Grid tool used by LHC experimentalists in their analyses and may well
serve as a model in other branches of science where there is a need to compare
data and complex simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures, uses CHEP2004.cls. Presented at
Computing in High-Energy Physics (CHEP'04), Interlaken, Switzerland, 27th
September - 1st October 200
HepData and JetWeb: HEP data archiving and model validation
The CEDAR collaboration is extending and combining the JetWeb and HepData
systems to provide a single service for tuning and validating models of
high-energy physics processes. The centrepiece of this activity is the fitting
by JetWeb of observables computed from Monte Carlo event generator events
against their experimentally determined distributions, as stored in HepData.
Caching the results of the JetWeb simulation and comparison stages provides a
single cumulative database of event generator tunings, fitted against a wide
range of experimental quantities. An important feature of this integration is a
family of XML data formats, called HepML.Comment: 4 pages, 0 figures. To be published in proceedings of CHEP0
HepForge: A lightweight development environment for HEP software
Setting up the infrastructure to manage a software project can become a task
as significant writing the software itself. A variety of useful open source
tools are available, such as Web-based viewers for version control systems,
"wikis" for collaborative discussions and bug-tracking systems, but their use
in high-energy physics, outside large collaborations, is insubstantial.
Understandably, physicists would rather do physics than configure project
management tools.
We introduce the CEDAR HepForge system, which provides a lightweight
development environment for HEP software. Services available as part of
HepForge include the above-mentioned tools as well as mailing lists, shell
accounts, archiving of releases and low-maintenance Web space. HepForge also
exists to promote best-practice software development methods and to provide a
central repository for re-usable HEP software and phenomenology codes.Comment: 3 pages, 0 figures. To be published in proceedings of CHEP06. Refers
to the HepForge facility at http://hepforge.cedar.ac.u
Cannabinol and cannabidiol exert opposing effects on rat feeding patterns
Rationale: Increased food consumption following Δ9-
tetrahydrocannabinol-induced cannabinoid type 1 receptor
agonism is well documented. However, possible non-Δ9-
tetrahydrocannabinol phytocannabinoid-induced feeding
effects have yet to be fully investigated. Therefore, we
have assessed the effects of the individual phytocannabinoids, cannabigerol, cannabidiol and cannabinol, upon feeding behaviors.
Methods: Adult male rats were treated (p.o.) with cannabigerol, cannabidiol, cannabinol or cannabinol plus the CB1R antagonist, SR141716A. Prior to treatment, rats were satiated and food intake recorded following drug administration. Data were analyzed for hourly intake and meal microstructure.
Results: Cannabinol induced a CB1R-mediated increase in
appetitive behaviors via significant reductions in the latency to feed and increases in consummatory behaviors via
increases in meal 1 size and duration. Cannabinol also
significantly increased the intake during hour 1 and total
chow consumed during the test. Conversely, cannabidiol
significantly reduced total chow consumption over the test
period. Cannabigerol administration induced no changes to
feeding behavior.
Conclusion: This is the first time cannabinol has been shown to increase feeding. Therefore, cannabinol could, in the future, provide an alternative to the currently used and
psychotropic Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-based medicines since
cannabinol is currently considered to be non-psychotropic.
Furthermore, cannabidiol reduced food intake in line with
some existing reports, supporting the need for further mechanistic and behavioral work examining possible anti-obesity effects of cannabidiol
Recreating living experiences from past memories through virtual worlds for people with dementia
This paper describes a study aimed to understand the use of 3D virtual world (VW) technology to support life engagement for people with dementia in long-term care. Three versions of VW prototypes (reminiscence room, virtual tour and gardening) utilising gestured-base interaction were developed iteratively. These prototypes were tested with older residents (80+) with dementia in care homes and their caregivers. Data collection was based on observations of how the residents and care staff interacted collaboratively with the VW. We discussed in depth the use of VWs in stimulating past memories and how this technology could help enhance their sense of self through various means. We also highlighted key approaches in designing VWs to sustain attention, create ludic experiences and facilitate interaction for older people with dementia
Reliably Classifying Novice Programmer Exam Responses using the SOLO Taxonomy
Abstract: Past papers of the BRACElet project have described an approach to teaching and assessing students where the students are presented with short pieces of code, and are instructed to explain, in plain English, what the code does. The student responses to these types of questions can be analysed according to the SOLO taxonomy. Some students display an understanding of the code as a single, functional whole, while other students cannot âsee the forest for the treesâ . However, classifying student responses into the taxonomy is not always straightforward. This paper analyses the reliability of the SOLO taxonomy as a means of categorising student responses. The paper derives an augmented set of SOLO categories for application to the programming domain, and proposes a set of guidelines for researchers to use
Going SOLO to assess novice programmers
This paper explores the programming knowledge of novices using Biggs' SOLO taxonomy. It builds on previous work of Lister et al. (2006) and addresses some of the criticisms of that work. The research was conducted by studying the exam scripts for 120 introductory programming students, in which three specific questions were analyzed using the SOLO taxonomy. The study reports the following four findings: when the instruction to students used by Lister et al. - "In plain English, explain what the following segment of Java code does" - is replaced with a less ambiguous instruction, many students still provide multistructural responses; students are relatively consistent in the SOLO level of their answers; student responses on SOLO reading tasks correlate positively with performance on writing tasks; postgraduates students manifest a higher level of thinking than undergraduates. Copyright 2008 ACM
The interaction between wheat roots and soil pores in structured field soil
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) root growth in the subsoil is usually constrained by soil strength, although roots can use macropores to elongate to deeper layers. The quantitative relationship between the elongation of wheat roots and the soil pore system, however, is still to be determined. We studied the depth distribution of roots of six wheat varieties and explored their relationship with soil macroporosity from samples with the field structure preserved. Undisturbed soil cores (to a depth of 100 cm) were collected from the field and then non-destructively imaged using X-ray computed tomography (at a spatial resolution of 90 µm) to quantify soil macropore structure and root number density (the number of roots cm–2 within a horizontal cross-section of a soil core). Soil macroporosity changed significantly with depth but not between the different wheat lines. There was no significant difference in root number density between wheat varieties. In the subsoil, wheat roots used macropores, especially biopores (i.e. former root or earthworm channels) to grow into deeper layers. Soil macroporosity explained 59% of the variance in root number density. Our data suggested that the development of the wheat root system in the field was more affected by the soil macropore system than by genotype. On this basis, management practices which enhance the porosity of the subsoil may therefore be an effective strategy to improve deep rooting of wheat
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