A new portable 3-D gyroscope system for the evaluation of upper limb function

This study aims to develop a lightweight, portable and cost effective system for 3D motion analysis of the upper limb which can be readily applied within a clinical environment

A model for evaluating the institutional costs and benefits of ICT initiatives in teaching and learning in higher education

Significant investments are being made in the application of new information and communications technologies (ICT) to teaching and learning in higher education. However, until recently, there has been little progress in devising an integrated cost‐benefit model that decision‐makers can use to appraise ICT investment options from the wider institutional perspective. This paper describes and illustrates a model that has been developed to enable evaluations of the costs and benefits of the use of ICT. The strengths and limitations of the model are highlighted and discussed

Biomechanics of stair descent in older adults

Negotiating stairs is one of the most difficult activities of daily living faced by older adults. Many researchers have studied the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal demands of stair ascent but there is little research on the biomechanics of stair descent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the biomechanics of stair descent in older adults

Almost Sure Invariance Principle For Nonuniformly Hyperbolic Systems

We prove an almost sure invariance principle that is valid for general classes of nonuniformly expanding and nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems. Discrete time systems and flows are covered by this result. In particular, the result applies to the planar periodic Lorentz flow with finite horizon. Statistical limit laws such as the central limit theorem, the law of the iterated logarithm, and their functional versions, are immediate consequences.Comment: 21 pages, To appear in Communications in Mathematical Physic

Managing investment in teaching and learning technologies

Information and communications technologies are radically changing the way that teaching and learning activities are organised and delivered within HE institutions. A wide range of technologies is being deployed in quite complex and interactive ways, including virtual learning environments (VLEs), mobile communication technologies, digital libraries and on-line resources. A key challenge for university leaders is to maximise the benefits derived from these investments for all institutional stakeholders (not just teachers and learners), while at the same time minimising cost and risk (Ford et al, 1996). This requires not only co-ordinated strategies for change management but also new approaches to decision-making and to the evaluation of changes resulting from these decisions

The importance of cost‐benefit analysis: A response

The critique by Draper raises some interesting points that we did not have space to discuss in our published paper. As he points out, taking a purely quantitative approach to the evaluation of ICT investments in teaching and learning is wholly inappropriate. However, in this transitional period, where ICT applications are new and the effects on operational processes within higher education institutions are unknown, it is not only qualitative issues that need to be investigated but also the potential changes to the scope and nature of the costs incurred by institutions. While the small-scale, and localized, introduction of ICT in teaching might only affect the time and effort of a few individual academics, large-scale deployment of the same methodology may require substantial institutional investment (for example, in network infrastructure, hardware, licenses, support staff). The CBA model encourages institutions to consider and record all the cost implications of their strategies, not in an attempt to quantify the outputs (benefits) of these new learning processes but to identify and quantify the inputs to these processes. These quantitative inputs can then be evaluated in the context of qualitative outputs

Using classroom communication systems to support interaction and discussion in large class settings

Teaching methods that promote interaction and discussion are known to benefit learning. However, large class sizes make it difficult to implement these methods. Research from the United States has shown that an electronic classroom communication system (CCS) can be used to support active discussion in large lecture classes. This investigation extends that research and it evaluates students’ and teachers’ experiences of CCS technology in the context of two different modes of discussion — peer‐group and class‐wide discussion. With CCS technology, students’ answers to multiple‐choice concept tests are collated in real time with the class results fed back as a histogram. This information serves as the trigger for each mode of discussion. This paper explores the unique contribution of CCS technology, the relative strengths of peer‐ and class‐wide discussion and some practical implementation issues

Optimistic barrier synchronization

Barrier synchronization is fundamental operation in parallel computation. In many contexts, at the point a processor enters a barrier it knows that it has already processed all the work required of it prior to synchronization. The alternative case, when a processor cannot enter a barrier with the assurance that it has already performed all the necessary pre-synchronization computation, is treated. The problem arises when the number of pre-sychronization messages to be received by a processor is unkown, for example, in a parallel discrete simulation or any other computation that is largely driven by an unpredictable exchange of messages. We describe an optimistic O(log sup 2 P) barrier algorithm for such problems, study its performance on a large-scale parallel system, and consider extensions to general associative reductions as well as associative parallel prefix computations