OCR : citizenship studies for GCSE short and full courses. 'OCR : estudios de ciudadanía para cursos breves y completos de GCSE'.

Cumple con los requisitos del programa de estudios sobre Ciudadanía en la etapa 4 de secundaria (key stage 4) y, también, sirve para la preparación de varios cursos del título General Certificate Secondary Education (GCSE), concedido por el organismo OCR. Los objetivos de este programa son: dar las habilidades y conocimientos, que afectan a la gente en su vida cotidiana, como el derecho, la política y la economía, para ayudarles a entender mejor lo que pasa en la sociedad y en el complicado mundo en que vivimos. Y, también, ofrecer oportunidades para el debate, la acción práctica y la investigación. El libro está dividido en doce temas estructurados así: el estudio de un caso, basado en hechos reales, seguido de preguntas para la discusión y el debate, explicaciones y detalles de fondo y, por último, definiciones de palabras y de conceptos clave.

OCR citizenship studies revision guide : for GCSE short and full courses.

Guía de revisión para consolidar los conocimientos y la comprensión de los estudios de Ciudadanía en los cursos corto y largo para el General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) especificación OCR y para ayudar a los estudiantes a revisar y darles confianza en los exámenes. Está organizada en dos temas: los derechos y responsabilidades; identidad, la democracia y la justicia y diseñada para permitir al alumno a entender lo que significa ser británico y la importancia de la cohesión de la comunidad para el desarrollo social y bienestar económico de nuestra sociedad; desarrollar y aplicar el conocimiento y la comprensión necesarios para convertirse en un ciudadano informado, activo y responsable a nivel local, nacional y mundial.

Estat??gies de resoluci?? de problemes matem??tics : incid??ncia de l'??s del full de c??lcul en l'ensenyament-aprenetatge de la proporcionalitat

Los objetivos que se pretenden conseguir son: 1. Dise??ar dos propuestas de ense??anza/aprendizaje sobre el contenido matem??tico de la proporcionalidad que compartan los mismos objetivos, contenidos, actividades y metodolog??a de ense??anza, pero con la diferencia de que una de las propuestas utilice la hoja de c??lculo como un mediador en el aprendizaje de contenidos matem??ticos y la otra utilice la calculadora. 2. Dise??ar un proceso de investigaci??n en el contexto del aula que permita analizar y contrastar las diferencias que se producen en el proceso y en el resultado del aprendizaje de contenidos matem??ticos y en la resoluci??n de problemas cuando los alumnos utilizan como herramienta mediadora el programa inform??tico de la hoja de c??lculo y cuando no lo utilizan. 3. Analizar y contrastar las caracter??sticas del aprendizaje de los alumnos que han seguido las dos propuestas did??cticas, con y sin uso de la hoja de c??lculo, en las siguientes variables: 3.1 El rendimiento en la resoluci??n de problemas sobre proporcionalidad directa. 3.2 Las caracter??sticas del proceso de resoluci??n de problemas sobre proporcionalidad. 4. Analizar la incidencia que tienen en el aprendizaje de los alumnos las variables independientes tipo de parejas y profesor. Las hip??tesis son: a) Las caracter??sticas educativas de la hoja de c??lculo favorecer??n el aprendizaje de la proporcionalidad y de las estrategias de organizaci??n de la informaci??n, de planificaci??n del proceso de resoluci??n, de regulaci??n y de evaluaci??n. b) La mediaci??n de la hoja de c??lculo en la resoluci??n de problemas matem??ticos potenciar?? un tipo de interacci??n m??s compartida entre los alumnos. c) Las variables independientes contexto de aprendizaje y tipo de pareja tendr??n una incidencia mayor en el resultado del aprendizaje de los alumnos que la variable independiente profesor. 106 alumno de tercer curso de ESO del Instituto de Ense??anza Secundaria Ronda de Lleida. El trabajo se desarrolla en 3 partes: 1. Se revisan los diferentes enfoques de estudio y sus aportaciones en el ??mbito educativo en referencia a los tres ejes te??ricos del trabajo emp??rico: a) el proceso de resoluci??n de problemas y las variables implicadas en este proceso; b) las potencialidades educativas del ordenador y de la hoja de c??lculo como herramientas mediadoras en el aprendizaje de estrategias congnitivas y metacognitivas de resoluci??n de problemas; y c) las variables educativas implicadas en el proceso de ense??anza-aprendizaje del contenido matem??tico de la proporcionalidad. 2. Se destacan las caracter??sticas principales del dise??o de un proceso de investigaci??n cuasi-experimental en el que participan todos los alumnos de 3?? de ESO de un intituto de Lleida. 3. Se exponen las principales conclusiones del trabajo, plante??ndose interrogantes y dificultades que no quedan resueltas. La muestra total de alumnos se distribuye en funci??n de 3 variables independientes: contexto de aprendizaje, profesor, y tipo de pareja. Prueba estad??stica de Barlett-Box de homogeneidad de la varianza, para analizar los resultados obtenidos en la prueba pre-test. Se utiliza el an??lisis de varianza ANOVA para la prueba post-test de an??lisis de varianza. Para el an??lisis de varianza ANOVA se utiliza SPSS. No hay diferencias en las puntuaciones obtenidas por los diferentes grupos de alumnos. Se muestra que el contexto de aprendizaje tiene influencia en los resultados. Los alumnos de las parejas heterog??neas obtienen resultados muy pr??ximos a los que obtienen los alumnos de parejas homog??neas altas, aunque los alumnos que de parejas homog??neas bajas obtienen resultados m??s bajos. El grupo de alumnos que utilizan la hoja de c??lculo realiza un mayor n??mero de acciones encaminadas a analizar el problema, planificar el proceso de resoluci??n y revisar su validez que el grupo de alumnos que usa la calculadora. 1. Se destaca la posibilidad de mejorar las estrategias para resolver problemas de los alumnos de ESO, y la incidencia positiva que este aprendizaje tiene en su rendimiento en el ??rea de las materm??ticas. 2. Se muestra la incidencia positiva en el aprendizaje de los alumnos de cuatro elementos de la propuesta did??ctica analizada y que, tienen que estar presentes en el dise??o de propuestas de ense??anza/aprendizaje que tengan como objetivo mejorar el proceso para resolver problemas matem??ticos: - contextualizar los problemas a resolver por el alumno en situaciones cotidianas de su entorno; - usar m??todos de ense??anza que hagan visibles las acciones para resolver un problema, proceso poco conocido desde el punto de vista del alumno; - dise??ar diferentes tipos de materiales did??cticos que gu??en las selecci??n, la organizaci??n, la gesti??n y el control de los diferentes procedimientos para resolver un problema; - crear espacios de discusi??n y de reflexi??n alrededor de este proceso como, por ejemplo, el trabajo en peque??os grupos o parejas. 3. Se destaca la incidencia positiva que puede tener el uso de la hoja de c??lculo en el aprendizaje de contenidos matem??ticos. Se muestra que las caracter??sticas de la interacci??n alumno-hoja de c??lculo y la peculiar manera de organizar y manipular la informaci??n matem??tica del programa inform??tico de la hoja de c??lculo define una manera diferente de aprender tanto cuantitativamente como cualitativamente.

Environmental variation at the onset of independent foraging affects full-grown body mass in the red fox

The period following the withdrawal of parental care has been highlighted as a key developmental period for juveniles. One reason for this is that juveniles cannot forage as competently as adults, potentially placing them at greater risk from environmentally-induced changes in food availability. However, no study has examined this topic. Using a long-term dataset on red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), we examined (i) dietary changes that occurred in the one-month period following the attainment of nutritional independence, (ii) diet composition in relation to climatic variation, and (iii) the effect of climatic variation on subsequent full-grown mass. Diet at nutritional independence contained increased quantities of easy-to-catch food items (earthworms and insects) when compared with pre-independence. Interannual variation in the volume of rainfall at nutritional independence was positively correlated to the proportion of earthworms in cub diet. Pre-independence cub mass and rainfall immediately following nutritional independence explained a significant proportion of variance in full-grown mass, with environmental variation affecting full-grown mass of the entire cohorts. Thus, weather-mediated availability of easy-to-catch food items at a key developmental stage has lifelong implications for the development of juvenile foxes by affecting full-grown mass, which in turn appears to be an important component of individual reproductive potential.

Full-dimensional vibrational calculations for H5O2+ using an ab initio potential energy surface

We report quantum diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) and variational calculations in full dimensionality for selected vibrational states of H5O2+ using a new ab initio potential energy surface [X. Huang, B. Braams, and J. M. Bowman, J. Chem. Phys. 122, 044308 (2005)]. The energy and properties of the zero-point state are focused on in the rigorous DMC calculations. OH-stretch fundamentals are also calculated using "fixed-node" DMC calculations and variationally using two versions of the code MULTIMODE. These results are compared with infrared multiphoton dissociation measurements of Yeh [L. I. Yeh, M. Okumura, J. D. Myers, J. M. Price, and Y. T. Lee, J. Chem. Phys. 91, 7319 (1989)]. Some preliminary results for the energies of several modes of the shared hydrogen are also reported.

Full-dimensional quantum calculations of ground-state tunneling splitting of malonaldehyde using an accurate ab initio potential energy surface

Quantum calculations of the ground vibrational state tunneling splitting of H-atom and D-atom transfer in malonaldehyde are performed on a full-dimensional ab initio potential energy surface (PES). The PES is a fit to 11 147 near basis-set-limit frozen-core CCSD(T) electronic energies. This surface properly describes the invariance of the potential with respect to all permutations of identical atoms. The saddle-point barrier for the H-atom transfer on the PES is 4.1 kcal/mol, in excellent agreement with the reported ab initio value. Model one-dimensional and "exact" full-dimensional calculations of the splitting for H- and D-atom transfer are done using this PES. The tunneling splittings in full dimensionality are calculated using the unbiased "fixed-node" diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) method in Cartesian and saddle-point normal coordinates. The ground-state tunneling splitting is found to be 21.6 cm(-1) in Cartesian coordinates and 22.6 cm(-1) in normal coordinates, with an uncertainty of 2-3 cm(-1). This splitting is also calculated based on a model which makes use of the exact single-well zero-point energy (ZPE) obtained with the MULTIMODE code and DMC ZPE and this calculation gives a tunneling splitting of 21-22 cm(-1). The corresponding computed splittings for the D-atom transfer are 3.0, 3.1, and 2-3 cm(-1). These calculated tunneling splittings agree with each other to within less than the standard uncertainties obtained with the DMC method used, which are between 2 and 3 cm(-1), and agree well with the experimental values of 21.6 and 2.9 cm(-1) for the H and D transfer, respectively. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

An efficient low power FFT implementation for multiband full-rate ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers

This paper discusses the design, implementation and synthesis of an FFT module that has been specifically optimized for use in the OFDM based Multiband UWB system, although the work is generally applicable to many other OFDM based receiver systems. Previous work has detailed the requirements for the receiver FFT module within the Multiband UWB ODFM based system and this paper draws on those requirements coupled with modern digital architecture principles and low power design criteria to converge on our optimized solution. The FFT design obtained in this paper is also applicable for implementation of the transmitter IFFT module therefore only needing one FFT module for half-duplex operation. The results from this paper enable the baseband designers of the 200Mbit/sec variant of Multiband UWB systems (and indeed other OFDM based receivers) using System-on-Chip (SoC), FPGA and ASIC technology to create cost effective and low power solutions biased toward the competitive consumer electronics market.

Soft-bit and numerical precision requirements on multiband full-rate ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers

This paper discusses the architectural design, implementation and associated simulated peformance results of a possible receiver solution fir a multiband Ultra-Wideband (UWB) receiver. The paper concentrates on the tradeoff between the soft-bit width and numerical precision requirements for the receiver versus performance. The required numerical precision results obtained in this paper can be used by baseband designers of cost effective UWB systems using Systein-on-Chip (SoC), FPGA and ASIC technology solutions biased toward the competitive consumer electronics market(1).

Full interference cancellation for two-path cooperative communications

This paper proposes a full interference cancellation (FIC) approach for two-path cooperative communications. Unlike the single relay schemes, the two-path cooperative scheme involves two relay nodes, so that the source can continuously transmit data to the two relays alternatively and the full bandwidth efficiency with respect to the direct transmission can be retained. The two-path relay scheme may however suffer from inter-relay interference which is caused by the simultaneous transmission of the source and one of the relays at any time. In this paper, first the inter-relay interference is expressed as a single recursive term in the received signal, and then the FIC approach is proposed to fully remove the inter-relay interference. The FIC has not only better performance but also less complexity than existing approaches. Numerical examples are also given to verify the proposed approach.

A low clock frequency FFT core implementation for multiband full-rate ultra-wideband (UWB) receivers

This paper discusses the design, implementation and synthesis of an FFT module that has been specifically optimized for use in the OFDM based Multiband UWB system, although the work is generally applicable to many other OFDM based receiver systems. Previous work has detailed the requirements for the receiver FFT module within the Multiband UWB ODFM based system and this paper draws on those requirements coupled with modern digital architecture principles and low power design criteria to converge on our optimized solution particularly aimed at a low-clock rate implementation. The FFT design obtained in this paper is also applicable for implementation of the transmitter IFFT module therefore only needing one FFT module in the device for half-duplex operation. The results from this paper enable the baseband designers of the 200Mbit/sec variant of Multiband UWB systems (and indeed other OFDM based receivers) using System-on-Chip (SoC), FPGA and ASIC technology to create cost effective and low power consumer electronics product solutions biased toward the very competitive market.

The full-spectrum correlated-k method for longwave atmospheric radiative transfer using an effective Planck function

The correlated k-distribution (CKD) method is widely used in the radiative transfer schemes of atmospheric models and involves dividing the spectrum into a number of bands and then reordering the gaseous absorption coefficients within each one. The fluxes and heating rates for each band may then be computed by discretizing the reordered spectrum into of order 10 quadrature points per major gas and performing a monochromatic radiation calculation for each point. In this presentation it is shown that for clear-sky longwave calculations, sufficient accuracy for most applications can be achieved without the need for bands: reordering may be performed on the entire longwave spectrum. The resulting full-spectrum correlated k (FSCK) method requires significantly fewer monochromatic calculations than standard CKD to achieve a given accuracy. The concept is first demonstrated by comparing with line-by-line calculations for an atmosphere containing only water vapor, in which it is shown that the accuracy of heating-rate calculations improves approximately in proportion to the square of the number of quadrature points. For more than around 20 points, the root-mean-squared error flattens out at around 0.015 K/day due to the imperfect rank correlation of absorption spectra at different pressures in the profile. The spectral overlap of m different gases is treated by considering an m-dimensional hypercube where each axis corresponds to the reordered spectrum of one of the gases. This hypercube is then divided up into a number of volumes, each approximated by a single quadrature point, such that the total number of quadrature points is slightly fewer than the sum of the number that would be required to treat each of the gases separately. The gaseous absorptions for each quadrature point are optimized such that they minimize a cost function expressing the deviation of the heating rates and fluxes calculated by the FSCK method from line-by-line calculations for a number of training profiles. This approach is validated for atmospheres containing water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone, in which it is found that in the troposphere and most of the stratosphere, heating-rate errors of less than 0.2 K/day can be achieved using a total of 23 quadrature points, decreasing to less than 0.1 K/day for 32 quadrature points. It would be relatively straightforward to extend the method to include other gases.