Open educational practices for curriculum enhancement

Open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) are relatively new areas in educational research. How OER and OEP can help practitioners enhance curricula is one of a number of under-researched topics. This article aims to enable practitioners to identify and implement appropriate open practices to enhance higher education curricula. To that aim, we put forward a framework of four open educational practices based on patterns of OER reuse (‘as is’ or adapted), mapped against the processes of curriculum design and delivery. The framework was developed from the in-depth analysis of 20 cases of higher education practitioners, which revealed patterns of OER reuse across disciplines, institutions and needs. For each open practice we offer evidence, examples and ideas for application by practitioners. We also put forward recommendations for institutional policies on OER and OE

Pulse generation without gain-bandwidth limitation in a laser with self-similar evolution

With existing techniques for mode-locking, the bandwidth of ultrashort pulses from a laser is determined primarily by the spectrum of the gain medium. Lasers with self-similar evolution of the pulse in the gain medium can tolerate strong spectral breathing, which is stabilized by nonlinear attraction to the parabolic self-similar pulse. Here we show that this property can be exploited in a fiber laser to eliminate the gain-bandwidth limitation to the pulse duration. Broad (̃200 nm) spectra are generated through passive nonlinear propagation in a normal-dispersion laser, and these can be dechirped to ̃20-fs duration

Galilean invariance of lattice Boltzmann models

It is well-known that the original lattice Boltzmann (LB) equation deviates from the Navier-Stokes equations due to an unphysical velocity dependent viscosity. This unphysical dependency violates the Galilean invariance and limits the validation domain of the LB method to near incompressible flows. As previously shown, recovery of correct transport phenomena in kinetic equations depends on the higher hydrodynamic moments. In this Letter, we give specific criteria for recovery of various transport coefficients. The Galilean invariance of a general class of LB models is demonstrated via numerical experiments

Truth-telling to the patient, family, and the sexual partner: a rights approach to the role of healthcare providers in adult HIV disclosure in China.

Patients' rights are central in today's legislation and social policies related to health care, including HIV care, in not only Western countries but around the world. However, given obvious socio-cultural differences it is often asked how or to what extent patients' rights should be respected in non-Western societies such as China. In this paper, it is argued that the patients' rights framework is compatible with Chinese culture, and that from the perspective of contemporary patient rights healthcare providers have a duty to disclose truthfully the diagnosis and prognosis to their patients, that the Chinese cultural practice of involving families in care should - with consent from the patient - be promoted out of respect for patients' rights and well-being, and that healthcare providers should be prepared to address the issue of disclosing a patient's HIV status to sexual partner(s). Legally, the provider should be permitted to disclose without consent from the patient but not obliged to in all cases. The decision to do this should be taken with trained sensitivity to a range of ethically relevant considerations. Post-disclosure counseling or psychological support should be in place to address the concerns of potentially adverse consequences of provider-initiated disclosure and to maximize the psychosocial and medical benefits of the disclosure. There is an urgent need for healthcare providers to receive training in ethics and disclosure skills. This paper concludes also with some suggestions for improving the centerpiece Chinese legislation, State Council's "Regulations on AIDS Prevention and Control" (2006), to further safeguard the rights and well-being of HIV patients

Data assimilation with an improved particle filter and its application in the TRIGRS landslide model

Particle filters have become a popular algorithm in data assimilation for their ability to handle nonlinear or non-Gaussian state-space models, but they have significant disadvantages. In this work, an improved particle filter algorithm is proposed. To overcome the particle degeneration and improve particles' efficiency, the processes of particle resampling and particle transfer are updated. In this improved algorithm, particle propagation and the resampling method are ameliorated. The new particle filter is applied to the Lorenz-63 model, and its feasibility and effectiveness are verified using only 20 particles. The root-mean-square difference (RMSD) of estimations converges to stable when there are more than 20 particles. Finally, we choose a peristaltic landslide model and carry out an assimilation experiment of 20 days. Results show that the estimations of states can effectively correct the running offset of the model and the RMSD is convergent after 3 days of assimilation.</p

Resolving singular forces in cavity flow: Multiscale modeling from atoms to millimeters

A multiscale approach for fluid flow is developed that retains an atomistic description in key regions. The method is applied to a classic problem where all scales contribute: The force on a moving wall bounding a fluid-filled cavity. Continuum equations predict an infinite force due to stress singularities. Following the stress over more than six decades in length in systems with characteristic scales of millimeters and milliseconds allows us to resolve the singularities and determine the force for the first time. The speedup over pure atomistic calculations is more than fourteen orders of magnitude. We find a universal dependence on the macroscopic Reynolds number, and large atomistic effects that depend on wall velocity and interactions.Comment: 4 pages,3 figure

Seismic retrofit of RC frames through beam-end weakening in conjunction with FRP strengthening

The strong column/weak beam requirement is now widely accepted in the design of reinforced concrete (RC) frames to achieve good seismic performance. However, many existing RC frames violate this requirement as they were designed according to inadequate design codes (generally previous codes). In particular, RC frames designed according to the previous Chinese codes for seismic design are likely to violate this requirement as the contribution of a cast-in-place floor slab in tension is not included in assessing the moment capacity of the beam in negative bending. This paper proposes three promising beam weakening techniques in combination with FRP strengthening to achieve this strong column/weak beam hierarchy and presents the preliminary results of an ongoing study into the effectiveness of and design procedures for the proposed techniques