Online Education: What Works in Mathematics

Florida State University and University of Helsinki Information technology has the potential to deliver education to everybody by high quality online courses and associated services, and to enhance traditional face-to-face instruction by, e.g., web services offering virtually unlimited practice and step-bystep solutions to practice problems. Regardless of this, tools of information technology have not yet penetrated mathematics education in any meaningful way. This is mostly due to the inertia of academia: instructors are slow to change their working habits. This paper reports on an experiment where all the instructors (seven instructors and six teaching assistants) of a large calculus course were required to base their instruction on online content. The paper will analyze the effectiveness of various solutions used, and finishes with recommendations regarding best practices.

Towards understanding IT value co-creation in crowdsourcing:the multiple stakeholders' perspective research-in-progress paper

Contemporary business environment involves IT being invested and shared by multiple stakeholders in collaborative, platform-based, and relational arrangements where the objective is to co-create value. Traditional IT enabled business value therefore has been extended towards IT value co-creation that involves multiple stakeholders. In this paper, we present a conceptual development of IT-based value co-creation in the context of online crowdsourcing. Based on the existing literature, we have distinguished multiple crowdsourcing types (models) by analyzing attributes of crowd, the roles of the client, the platform and the crowd that act as key stakeholders in the value co-creation process, and describe the major interactions between the main stakeholders. Our conceptual development is suggesting different combinations of value co-creation layers to be evident in different crowdsourcing models.

Space-for-Time Substitution Works in Everglades Ecological Forecasting Models

Space-for-time substitution is often used in predictive models because long-term time-series data are not available. Critics of this method suggest factors other than the target driver may affect ecosystem response and could vary spatially, producing misleading results. Monitoring data from the Florida Everglades were used to test whether spatial data can be substituted for temporal data in forecasting models. Spatial models that predicted bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei) population response to a drying event performed comparably and sometimes better than temporal models. Models worked best when results were not extrapolated beyond the range of variation encompassed by the original dataset. These results were compared to other studies to determine whether ecosystem features influence whether space-for-time substitution is feasible. Taken in the context of other studies, these results suggest space-for-time substitution may work best in ecosystems with low beta-diversity, high connectivity between sites, and small lag in organismal response to the driver variable.

Space-for-Time Substitution Works in Everglades Ecological Forecasting Models

Space-for-time substitution is often used in predictive models because long-term time-series data are not available. Critics of this method suggest factors other than the target driver may affect ecosystem response and could vary spatially, producing misleading results. Monitoring data from the Florida Everglades were used to test whether spatial data can be substituted for temporal data in forecasting models. Spatial models that predicted bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei) population response to a drying event performed comparably and sometimes better than temporal models. Models worked best when results were not extrapolated beyond the range of variation encompassed by the original dataset. These results were compared to other studies to determine whether ecosystem features influence whether space-for-time substitution is feasible. Taken in the context of other studies, these results suggest space-fortime substitution may work best in ecosystems with low beta-diversity, high connectivity between sites, and small lag in organismal response to the driver variable.

Abortion in progress

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Abortion in progress

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Veer e midir. The licensing of private building works in Lisbon in the modern period

Using legal instruments and council records, this article analyses the legal rules, the procedure and the cost of licensing a private building work as well the practices used by competent authorities to sanction and solve illegal actions in Lisbon through the modern age.

Predicting long-term outcome after acute ischemic stroke: a simple index works in patients from controlled clinical trials

Background and Purpose—An early and reliable prognosis for recovery in stroke patients is important for initiation of individual treatment and for informing patients and relatives. We recently developed and validated models for predicting survival and functional independence within 3 months after acute stroke, based on age and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score assessed within 6 hours after stroke. Herein we demonstrate the applicability of our models in an independent sample of patients from controlled clinical trials. Methods—The prognostic models were used to predict survival and functional recovery in 5419 patients from the Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive (VISTA). Furthermore, we tried to improve the accuracy by adapting intercepts and estimating new model parameters. Results—The original models were able to correctly classify 70.4% (survival) and 72.9% (functional recovery) of patients. Because the prediction was slightly pessimistic for patients in the controlled trials, adapting the intercept improved the accuracy to 74.8% (survival) and 74.0% (functional recovery). Novel estimation of parameters, however, yielded no relevant further improvement. Conclusions—For acute ischemic stroke patients included in controlled trials, our easy-to-apply prognostic models based on age and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score correctly predicted survival and functional recovery after 3 months. Furthermore, a simple adaptation helps to adjust for a different prognosis and is recommended if a large data set is available. (Stroke. 2008;39:000-000.)

Immunociblage des tumeurs: situation et perspectives en 2000

Following 15 years of experimental studies, tumor immunotargeting using monoclonal antibodies directed against tumor associated antigens shows now important monoclonal antibodies directed against tumor associated antigens shows now important clinical developments. This is mainly due to encouraging therapeutic results which have obtained using humanized antibodies such as the anti-CD20 rituximab in follicular B lymphomas and the anti-DrbB2 herceptin in breast carcinomas. Thanks to genetic engineering it is possible to graft variable or hypervariable regions from murine antibodies to human IgG, and even to obtain fully human antibodies by using either transgenic mice containing a large part of the human repertoire of human IgG, or selection of human antibody fragments expressed by phages. Radiolabeling of antibodies played a major role to demonstrate the tumor immunotargeting specificity and remains attractive for the diagnosis by immunoscintigraphy as well as for the treatment by radioimmunotherapy of some cancers. In this review, the current results and the prospects of diagnostic and therapeutic uses of anti-tumor antibodies and their fragments will be described. Concerning diagnosis, 123-iodine or 99m-technetium labeled Fab fragments allowed very demonstrative tumor images but this technique has a limited effect upon the therapeutic attitude. Immuno-PET (positron emission tomography) could enhance the sensitivity of this imaging method. Radio-immunoguided surgery and immunophotodetection are attractive techniques still under evaluation. Concerning therapy, 131-iodine labeled anti-CD20 antibodies gave spectacular results in non-Hodgkin's B lymphomas. In solid tumors which as less radiosensitive, radioimmunotherapy could concern small tumors and need the use of two-steps targeting and/or alpha emitters radioisotopes. Some other strategies will be described such as bispecific antibodies directed against tumors and immune effector cells, some antibody fragments expressed on T cells called T-bodies or some biological studies using intrabodies. Published data and works in progress demonstrate that immunotargeting of tumors will have a growing place in the treatments of cancer patients.

Espalhamento geométrico em modelos plano-estratificados

A medição de parâmetros físicos de reservatórios se constitui de grande importância para a detecção de hidrocarbonetos. A obtenção destes parâmetros é realizado através de análise de amplitude com a determinação dos coeficientes de reflexão. Para isto, faz-se necessário a aplicação de técnicas especiais de processamento capazes de corrigir efeitos de divergência esférica. Um problema pode ser estabelecido através da seguinte questão: Qual o efeito relativamente mais importante como responsável pela atenuação de amplitudes, o espalhamento geométrico ou a perda por transmissividade? A justificativa desta pergunta reside em que a correção dinâmica teórica aplicada a dados reais visa exclusivamente o espalhamento geométrico. No entanto, a análise física do problema por diferentes direções põe a resposta em condições de dúvida, o que é interessante e contraditório com a prática. Uma resposta embasada mais fisicamente pode dar melhor subsídio a outros trabalhos em andamento. O presente trabalho visa o cálculo da divergência esférica segundo a teoria Newman-Gutenberg e corrigir sismogramas sintéticos calculados pelo método da refletividade. O modelo-teste é crostal para que se possa ter eventos de refração crítica além das reflexões e para, com isto, melhor orientar quanto à janela de aplicação da correção de divergência esférica o que resulta em obter o então denominado “verdadeiras amplitudes”. O meio simulado é formado por camadas plano-horizontais, homogêneas e isotrópicas. O método da refletividade é uma forma de solução da equação de onda para o referido modelo, o que torna possível um entendimento do problema em estudo. Para se chegar aos resultados obtidos foram calculados sismogramas sintéticos através do programa P-SV-SH desenvolvido por Sandmeier (1998), e curvas do espalhamento geométrico em função do tempo para o modelo estudado como descrito por Newman (1973). Demonstramos como uma das conclusões que a partir dos dados do modelo (velocidades, espessuras, densidades e profundidades) uma equação para a correção de espalhamento geométrico visando às “verdadeiras amplitudes” não é de fácil obtenção. O objetivo maior então deveria ser obter um painel da função de divergência esférica para corrigir as verdadeiras amplitudes.

The Olive Tree, Vol. 11 Number 2, 2003

The Winter 2003 issue of The Olive Tree features articles about library projects, collections, technological innovations, and events at Fogler Library, University of Maine.