Contextualising learning for a real-world university: how an inverted curriculum in the first year can help better student retention

An identified issue within higher education is the high rates of student attrition after the first year, especially in the STEM disciplines. To address this issue, it is essential to reexamine and redesign the first year curriculum to engage and retain the students' interests while also scaffolding their learning experience. This session reports on an initiative based on the principles of the “inverted curriculum” within the Bachelor of Technology (BIT) course at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) that began in 2009 and has resulted in a reduction in first-year attrition rates from 18% in 2008 to 10% in 2009 and 2010 despite a growth in student intake of 15% to 40% in the past two years. We present the process and methods that helped achieve this and initiate a discussion on the innovations that are possible within this concept of inverted curriculum and how it can be implemented.

PERIODIC CONTROLS IN AN OSCILLATING DOMAIN: CONTROLS VIA UNFOLDING AND HOMOGENIZATION

An optimal control problem in a two-dimensional domain with a rapidly oscillating boundary is considered. The main features of this article are on two points, namely, we consider periodic controls in the thin periodic slabs of period epsilon > 0, a small parameter, and height O(1) in the oscillatory part, and the controls are characterized using unfolding operators. We then do a homogenization analysis of the optimal control problems as epsilon -> 0 with L-2 as well as Dirichlet (gradient-type) cost functionals.

细辛精油对5种木本花卉病害的离体抑菌效果比较

采用生长速率法和孢子萌发法测定了细辛精油对引起木本花卉叶部病害的5种病原菌(牡丹炭疽病、牡丹拟盘多毛孢叶斑病、月季黑斑病、肉桂链格孢叶斑病和龙血树镰孢叶斑病)的菌丝生长和孢子萌发的抑制作用。结果表明:细辛精油对牡丹拟盘多毛孢叶斑病菌菌丝生长和孢子萌发的抑制效果均为最好,EC50分别为120.43 mg/L和110.66 mg/L;对于同一种病原菌来说,细辛精油对牡丹炭疽病菌和肉桂链格孢叶斑病菌菌丝生长的抑制作用强于对其孢子萌发的抑制作用,对牡丹拟盘多毛孢叶斑病菌和龙血树镰孢叶斑病菌孢子萌发的抑制作用强于对其菌丝生长的抑制作用。

Agreement between direct, oscillometric and Doppler ultrasound blood pressures using three different cuff positions in anesthetized dogs

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Deep into fragile memory: the other secretaries of the Holy Office.

The secretaries of the secret were an essential element of the Holy Office’s district courts. They were in charge of record-ing and writing all of the official documents of these tribunals, but also of keeping the archive in order. And not only of these, so they were not the simple bureaucrats that the traditional historians wrote about. In fact, their long working hours turned a unique and much defined office into a complex taxonomy of professionals who shared the secretaries of the secret’s concerns but not their privileges. This paper aims to go in depth into these profession-als’ current life. They were not officials, but they take care of some important duties even if they were not getting paid for it.