Bar 1-Visibility Graphs and their relation to other Nearly Planar Graphs

A graph is called a strong (resp. weak) bar 1-visibility graph if its vertices can be represented as horizontal segments (bars) in the plane so that its edges are all (resp. a subset of) the pairs of vertices whose bars have a $\epsilon$-thick vertical line connecting them that intersects at most one other bar. We explore the relation among weak (resp. strong) bar 1-visibility graphs and other nearly planar graph classes. In particular, we study their relation to 1-planar graphs, which have a drawing with at most one crossing per edge; quasi-planar graphs, which have a drawing with no three mutually crossing edges; the squares of planar 1-flow networks, which are upward digraphs with in- or out-degree at most one. Our main results are that 1-planar graphs and the (undirected) squares of planar 1-flow networks are weak bar 1-visibility graphs and that these are quasi-planar graphs

Mapping assets: High impact practices and the first-year experience

This paper describes a course called The First Year Experience: Mapping our Communities designed around a theme of asset mapping, which allowed us to organically integrate a number of pedagogical goals with a number of high-impact practices. The mapping metaphor extended from physical mapping of the university campus as a space to the mapping of  academic and social resources, including mapping of the students’ sense of self and goals, their new environment and all the assets available to help them succeed. The theme of asset mapping also encompassed different world views and the concepts of perspective and positionality to provide students with a critical perspective on their own understanding and its limits. Our research assesses the success of this course at meeting its many intertwined goals, based on both quantitative and qualitative data collected from students in two recent course offerings

The Reduction of High Order Linear Dynamic Systems

Three existing techniques are selected as the most promising methods of system reduction. These methods are analysed and then applied to a realistic high order system. A second order model of the actual system is derived using each of the reduction techniques. The step response of the actual system and each of the models is obtained for comparison purposes. The reduction methods are compared with a view to application, limitations and accuracy. A new method for system reduction is also proposed which fashions a low order model after the response characteristics of the actual system. ThesisMaster of Engineering (MEngr

Mapping Assets: High Impact Practices and the First Year Experience

This paper describes a course called The First Year Experience: Mapping our Communities designed around a theme of asset mapping, which allowed us to organically integrate a number of pedagogical goals with a number of high-impact practices. The mapping metaphor extended from physical mapping of the university campus as a space to the mapping of  academic and social resources, including mapping of the students’ sense of self and goals, their new environment and all the assets available to help them succeed. The theme of asset mapping also encompassed different world views and the concepts of perspective and positionality to provide students with a critical perspective on their own understanding and its limits. Our research assesses the success of this course at meeting its many intertwined goals, based on both quantitative and qualitative data collected from students in two recent course offerings

Green's-Like Relations on Algebras and Varieties

There are five equivalence relations known as Green's relations definable on any semigroup or monoid, that is, on any algebra with a binary operation which is associative. In this paper, we examine whether Green's relations can be defined on algebras of any type τ. Some sort of (super-)associativity is needed for such definitions to work, and we consider algebras which are clones of terms of type τ, where the clone axioms including superassociativity hold. This allows us to define for any variety V of type τ two Green's-like relations ℒV and ℛV on the term clone of type τ. We prove a number of properties of these two relations, and describe their behaviour when V is a variety of semigroups

Studienerfolgsforschung an der FHWS: Was ist Studienerfolg und was beeinflusst ihn?

Jüngsten Erhebungen zufolge liegt die Studienabbrecherquote bei Bachelorstudiengängen derzeit bei 27 % über alle Hochschulen und Studienfächer hinweg. Politik, Gesellschaft und Arbeitgeberinnen und Arbeitgeber fordern daher eine Erhöhung der Studienerfolgsquoten. So werden den Hochschulen langfristig nicht nur für das Aufnehmen von Studienanfängerinnen und Studienanfängern finanzielle Mittel bereitgestellt werden, sondern auch für erfolgreiche Absolvierende. Daher hat in den letzten Jahren die Studienerfolgsforschung stark an Bedeutung gewonnen

Fachliche Konzeption und Evaluation des Studienmonitoringsystems der Hochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS)

Insgesamt wurde den Studierenden mit dem Studienmonitor ein benutzerfreundliches Tool an die Hand gegeben, das ihnen ermöglicht, den eigenen Fortschritt im Studium kontinuierlich zu verfolgen. Durch das integrierte Frühwarn- und Empfehlungssystem werden sie zudem auf kritische Verläufe aufmerksam gemacht und können dem gegensteuern. Aus Perspektive der Hochschule wurde ein Monitoringsystem zur Lehrveranstaltungs-, Studiengangs- und Hochschulentwicklung geschaffen: Aus den bereitgestellten Kennzahlen können Verbesserungspotentiale abgeleitet und Impulse zur Entwicklung geeigneter Maßnahmen gewonnen werden. Die Umsetzung und Wirksamkeit dieser Maßnahmen kann dann wiederum anhand von Kennzahlen überprüft werden. Somit wird durch den Studienmonitor eine differenzierte Grundlage für kennzahlenbasierte Entscheidungen geschaffen und ein wichtiger Beitrag zur Qualitätssicherung an der FHWS geleistet