MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are the educational buzzword of 2012. Media frenzy surrounds them and commercial interests have moved in. Sober analysis is overwhelmed by apocalyptic predictions ...that ignore the history of earlier educational technology fads. The paper describes the short history of MOOCs and sets them in the wider context of the evolution of educational technology and open/distance learning. While the hype about MOOCs presaging a revolution in higher education has focussed on their scale, the real revolution is that universities with scarcity at the heart of their business models are embracing openness. We explore the paradoxes that permeate the MOOCs movement and explode some myths enlisted in its support. The competition inherent in the gadarene rush to offer MOOCs will create a sea change by obliging participating institutions to revisit their missions and focus on teaching quality and students as never before. It could also create a welcome deflationary trend in the costs of higher education. 'Explanatory Note' 'During my time as a Fellow at the Korea National Open University (KNOU) in September 2012 media and web coverage of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) was intense. Since one of the requirements of the fellowship was a research paper, exploring the phenomenon of MOOCs seemed an appropriate topic. This essay had to be submitted to KNOU on 25 September 2012 but the MOOCs story is still evolving rapidly. I shall continue to follow it.' ' 'What is new is not true, and what is true is not new'. 'Hans Eysenck on Freudianism This paper is published by JIME following its first release as a paper produced as part of a fellowship at the Korea National Open University (KNOU). Both the original and this republication are available non-exclusively under Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY). Apart from this note and minor editorial adjustments the paper is unchanged.
Powerful approaches to inferring recent or current population structure based on nearest neighbor haplotype "coancestry" have so far been inaccessible to users without high quality genome-wide ...haplotype data. With a boom in nonmodel organism genomics, there is a pressing need to bring these methods to communities without access to such data. Here, we present RADpainter, a new program designed to infer the coancestry matrix from restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) data. We combine this program together with a previously published MCMC clustering algorithm into fineRADstructure-a complete, easy to use, and fast population inference package for RADseq data (https://github.com/millanek/fineRADstructure; last accessed February 24, 2018). Finally, with two example data sets, we illustrate its use, benefits, and robustness to missing RAD alleles in double digest RAD sequencing.
The advent of genome-wide dense variation data provides an opportunity to investigate ancestry in unprecedented detail, but presents new statistical challenges. We propose a novel inference framework ...that aims to efficiently capture information on population structure provided by patterns of haplotype similarity. Each individual in a sample is considered in turn as a recipient, whose chromosomes are reconstructed using chunks of DNA donated by the other individuals. Results of this "chromosome painting" can be summarized as a "coancestry matrix," which directly reveals key information about ancestral relationships among individuals. If markers are viewed as independent, we show that this matrix almost completely captures the information used by both standard Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and model-based approaches such as STRUCTURE in a unified manner. Furthermore, when markers are in linkage disequilibrium, the matrix combines information across successive markers to increase the ability to discern fine-scale population structure using PCA. In parallel, we have developed an efficient model-based approach to identify discrete populations using this matrix, which offers advantages over PCA in terms of interpretability and over existing clustering algorithms in terms of speed, number of separable populations, and sensitivity to subtle population structure. We analyse Human Genome Diversity Panel data for 938 individuals and 641,000 markers, and we identify 226 populations reflecting differences on continental, regional, local, and family scales. We present multiple lines of evidence that, while many methods capture similar information among strongly differentiated groups, more subtle population structure in human populations is consistently present at a much finer level than currently available geographic labels and is only captured by the haplotype-based approach. The software used for this article, ChromoPainter and fineSTRUCTURE, is available from http://www.paintmychromosomes.com/.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
By comparing the ozone depletion potential-weighted anthropogenic emissions of N₂O with those of other ozone-depleting substances, we show that N₂O emission currently is the single most important ...ozone-depleting emission and is expected to remain the largest throughout the 21st century. N₂O is unregulated by the Montreal Protocol. Limiting future N₂O emissions would enhance the recovery of the ozone layer from its depleted state and would also reduce the anthropogenic forcing of the climate system, representing a win-win for both ozone and climate.
Presents the first theoretical and methodological shift in the measurement of area deprivation in NZ since the 1990s and describes the development of the New Zealand Index of Multiple Deprivation ...(IMD). Describes briefly the development of Data Zones, an intermediary geographical scale, before outlining the development of the New Zealand Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), which uses routine data sets and methods comparable to current international deprivation indices. Identifies 28 indicators of deprivation from national health, social development, taxation, education, police databases, geospatial data providers and the 2013 Census, all of which represented seven domains of deprivation : employment; income; crime; housing; health; education; and geographical access Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study aims to develop a controller to operate an energy system-consisting of a photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system combined with a heat pump, using the reinforcement learning approach to minimize ...the operating costs of the system. For this, the flow rate of the cooling fluid pumped through the PVT system is controlled. This flow rate determines the temperature increase of the cooling fluid while reducing the temperature of the PVT system. The heated-up cooling fluid is used to improve the heat pump’s coefficient of performance (COP). For optimizing the operation costs of such a system, first an extensive simulation model has been developed. Based on this technical model, a controller has been developed using the reinforcement learning approach to allow for a cost-efficient control of the flow rate. The results show that a successfully trained control unit based on the reinforcement learning approach can reduce the operating costs with an independent validation dataset. For the case study presented here, based on the implemented methodological approach, including hyperparameter optimization, the operating costs of the investigated energy system can be reduced by more than 4% in the training dataset and by close to 3% in the validation dataset.
The Montreal Protocol was designed to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by enabling reductions in the abundance of ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere
.... The reduction in the atmospheric concentration of trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) has made the second-largest contribution to the decline in the total atmospheric concentration of ozone-depleting chlorine since the 1990s
. However, CFC-11 still contributes one-quarter of all chlorine reaching the stratosphere, and a timely recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer depends on a sustained decline in CFC-11 concentrations
. Here we show that the rate of decline of atmospheric CFC-11 concentrations observed at remote measurement sites was constant from 2002 to 2012, and then slowed by about 50 per cent after 2012. The observed slowdown in the decline of CFC-11 concentration was concurrent with a 50 per cent increase in the mean concentration difference observed between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and also with the emergence of strong correlations at the Mauna Loa Observatory between concentrations of CFC-11 and other chemicals associated with anthropogenic emissions. A simple model analysis of our findings suggests an increase in CFC-11 emissions of 13 ± 5 gigagrams per year (25 ± 13 per cent) since 2012, despite reported production being close to zero
since 2006. Our three-dimensional model simulations confirm the increase in CFC-11 emissions, but indicate that this increase may have been as much as 50 per cent smaller as a result of changes in stratospheric processes or dynamics. The increase in emission of CFC-11 appears unrelated to past production; this suggests unreported new production, which is inconsistent with the Montreal Protocol agreement to phase out global CFC production by 2010.
Hybrid 3D Printing of Soft Electronics Valentine, Alexander D.; Busbee, Travis A.; Boley, John William ...
Advanced materials (Weinheim)
29, Številka:
40
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Hybrid 3D printing is a new method for producing soft electronics that combines direct ink writing of conductive and dielectric elastomeric materials with automated pick‐and‐place of surface mount ...electronic components within an integrated additive manufacturing platform. Using this approach, insulating matrix and conductive electrode inks are directly printed in specific layouts. Passive and active electrical components are then integrated to produce the desired electronic circuitry by using an empty nozzle (in vacuum‐on mode) to pick up individual components, place them onto the substrate, and then deposit them (in vacuum‐off mode) in the desired location. The components are then interconnected via printed conductive traces to yield soft electronic devices that may find potential application in wearable electronics, soft robotics, and biomedical devices.
Hybrid 3D printing combines direct writing of stretchable conductive traces (electrodes) and elastomeric matrices with automated pick and place of surface mount electrical components, e.g., light‐emitting diodes, to create soft electronic devices, such as wearable sensors.
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