8,249 research outputs found
Struggling readers? Using theory to complicate understandings of what it means to be literate in school
Theories guide many aspects of literacy research. In this article we describe four theoretical approaches that we have used in qualitative research with students who are perceived to struggle with reading in school, including: New Literacy Studies, Disability Studies in Education, Bioecological Systems Theory, and Cultural Historical Activity Theory. We provide a brief overview of each of the theories and then explain how we have used them to gain insights about students with whom we have worked in the context of our research. Although grounded in distinct perspectives, we argue that each of the theories are lenses through which we were better able to understand the complexities of students’ struggles with reading. We further argue that the theories are united in their ability to broaden the perspectives of researchers and teachers to better account for the social, cultural, and institutional factors that shape literacy teaching and learning in schools. We conclude by questioning the use of the term “struggling reader” and highlighting the implications of our individual theoretical frames and analyses for both research and practice.Accepted manuscrip
Optoelectronic Reservoir Computing
Reservoir computing is a recently introduced, highly efficient bio-inspired
approach for processing time dependent data. The basic scheme of reservoir
computing consists of a non linear recurrent dynamical system coupled to a
single input layer and a single output layer. Within these constraints many
implementations are possible. Here we report an opto-electronic implementation
of reservoir computing based on a recently proposed architecture consisting of
a single non linear node and a delay line. Our implementation is sufficiently
fast for real time information processing. We illustrate its performance on
tasks of practical importance such as nonlinear channel equalization and speech
recognition, and obtain results comparable to state of the art digital
implementations.Comment: Contains main paper and two Supplementary Material
Projectile-shape dependence of impact craters in loose granular media
We report on the penetration of cylindrical projectiles dropped from rest
into a dry, noncohesive granular medium. The cylinder length, diameter,
density, and tip shape are all explicitly varied. For deep penetrations, as
compared to the cylinder diameter, the data collapse onto a single scaling law
that varies as the 1/3 power of the total drop distance, the 1/2 power of
cylinder length, and the 1/6 power of cylinder diameter. For shallow
penetrations, the projectile shape plays a crucial role with sharper objects
penetrating deeper.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures; experimen
Clustering and Non-Gaussian Behavior in Granular Matter
We investigate the properties of a model of granular matter consisting of
Brownian particles on a line subject to inelastic mutual collisions. This model
displays a genuine thermodynamic limit for the mean values of the energy and
the energy dissipation. When the typical relaxation time associated with
the Brownian process is small compared with the mean collision time
the spatial density is nearly homogeneous and the velocity probability
distribution is gaussian. In the opposite limit one has
strong spatial clustering, with a fractal distribution of particles, and the
velocity probability distribution strongly deviates from the gaussian one.Comment: 4 pages including 3 eps figures, LaTex, added references, corrected
typos, minimally changed contents and abstract, to published in
Phys.Rev.Lett. (tentatively on 28th of October, 1998
A Model for Force Fluctuations in Bead Packs
We study theoretically the complex network of forces that is responsible for
the static structure and properties of granular materials. We present detailed
calculations for a model in which the fluctuations in the force distribution
arise because of variations in the contact angles and the constraints imposed
by the force balance on each bead of the pile. We compare our results for force
distribution function for this model, including exact results for certain
contact angle probability distributions, with numerical simulations of force
distributions in random sphere packings. This model reproduces many aspects of
the force distribution observed both in experiment and in numerical simulations
of sphere packings
Architectures for a quantum random access memory
A random access memory, or RAM, is a device that, when interrogated, returns
the content of a memory location in a memory array. A quantum RAM, or qRAM,
allows one to access superpositions of memory sites, which may contain either
quantum or classical information. RAMs and qRAMs with n-bit addresses can
access 2^n memory sites. Any design for a RAM or qRAM then requires O(2^n)
two-bit logic gates. At first sight this requirement might seem to make large
scale quantum versions of such devices impractical, due to the difficulty of
constructing and operating coherent devices with large numbers of quantum logic
gates. Here we analyze two different RAM architectures (the conventional fanout
and the "bucket brigade") and propose some proof-of-principle implementations
which show that in principle only O(n) two-qubit physical interactions need
take place during each qRAM call. That is, although a qRAM needs O(2^n) quantum
logic gates, only O(n) need to be activated during a memory call. The resulting
decrease in resources could give rise to the construction of large qRAMs that
could operate without the need for extensive quantum error correction.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Updated version includes the answers to the
Refere
Slowly driven sandpile formation with granular mixtures
We introduce a one-dimensional sandpile model with different particle types and an infinitesimal driving rate. The parameters for the model are the N^2 critical slopes for one type of particle on top of another. The model is trivial when N=1, but for N=2 we observe four broad classes of sandpile structure in different regions of the parameter space. We describe and explain the behaviour of each of these classes, giving quantitative analysis wherever possible. The behaviour of sandpiles with N>2 essentially consists of combinations of these four classes. We investigate the model's robustness and highlight the key areas that any experiment designed to reproduce these results should focus on
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