Witch from "The Wizard of Oz," Margaret Hamilton

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

La atracción de la falsa palabra y del código prohibido en Margaret Atwood: "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"

Este trabajo ha sido realizado dentro del Grupo de Investigación GIU 10–19 “LITTERARVM. Grupo de Investigación en Literatura, Retórica y Tradición Clásica” de la UPV/EHU.

Losing their marbles : syntax-free programming for assessing problem-solving skills

Novice programmers have difficulty developing an algorithmic solution while simultaneously obeying the syntactic constraints of the target programming language. To see how students fare in algorithmic problem solving when not burdened by syntax, we conducted an experiment in which a large class of beginning programmers were required to write a solution to a computational problem in structured English, as if instructing a child, without reference to program code at all. The students produced an unexpectedly wide range of correct, and attempted, solutions, some of which had not occurred to their teachers. We also found that many common programming errors were evident in the natural language algorithms, including failure to ensure loop termination, hardwiring of solutions, failure to properly initialise the computation, and use of unnecessary temporary variables, suggesting that these mistakes are caused by inexperience at thinking algorithmically, rather than difficulties in expressing solutions as program code.

Toward a shared understanding of competency in programming : an invitation to the BABELnot Project

The ICT degrees in most Australian universities have a sequence of up to three programming subjects, or units. BABELnot is an ALTC-funded project that will document the academic standards associated with those three subjects in the six participating universities and, if possible, at other universities. This will necessitate the development of a rich framework for describing the learning goals associated with programming. It will also be necessary to benchmark exam questions that are mapped onto this framework. As part of the project, workshops are planned for ACE 2012, ICER 2012 and ACE 2013, to elicit feedback from the broader Australasian computing education community, and to disseminate the project’s findings. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the project to that broader Australasian computing education community and to invite their active participation.

Narcotics Anonymous participation and changes in substance use and social support

In Victoria (a southern Australian state) in 1995, Narcotics Anonymous had a small but growing membership providing an opportunity to study the early experience of new self-help members. Ninety-one new members were interviewed and 62 (68%) were reinterviewed after 12 months. Three measures of self-help participation were examined: service role involvement, step work, and stable meeting attendance. Lower prior involvement in treatment services and greater participation in self-help predicted subsequent self-help participation. Higher levels of secondary school education predicted service role involvement and longer periods in stable meeting attendance. Higher self-help participation through the 12 months prior to follow-up was associated with lower levels of hazardous alcohol use and higher emotional support at reinterview. Multivariate regression analysis suggested stable self-help meeting attendance and step work continued to predict reductions in hazardous alcohol use and improvements in social support, after controlling for a range of alternative predictors.

Intervention programmes to recruit female computing students : why do the programme champions do it?

This paper looks at intervention programmes to improve the representation of female students in computing education and the computer industry, A multiple case study methodology was used to look at major intervention programmes conducted in Australia. One aspect of the research focused on the programme champions; those women from the computing industry, those working within government organisations and those in academia who instigated the programmes. The success of these intervention programmes appears to have been highly dependent upon not only the design of the programme but on the involvement of these strong individuals who were passionate and worked tirelessly to ensure the programme's success. This paper provides an opportunity for the voices of these women to be heard. It describes the champions' own initial involvement with computing which frequently motivated and inspired them to conduct such programmes. The research found that when these types of intervention programmes were conducted by academic staff the work was undervalued compared to when the activities were conducted by staff in industry or in government. The academic environment was often not supportive of academics who conducted intervention programmes for female students.

In what ways does policy on academic integrity, copyright and privacy need to respond in order to accommodate assessment with Web 2.0 tools?

Increasingly social web technologies, such as blogging and micro-blogging, audio and video podcasting, photo/video, social bookmarking, social networking, wiki writing or virtual worlds are being used as forms of authoring or content creation to support students’ learning in higher education. As Web 2.0 teaching practice is characterised by open access to information and collaborative networks there are both familiar and novel challenges for policy-makers in higher education institutions. The Government 2.0 Taskforce heralded legislative and practice changes necessary because of Web 2.0. We reflect on the qualitative feedback received from innovative higher education practitioners using Web 2.0 to assess student work. This indicates a need for information policy review to accommodate the cultural shift towards information exchange and communication across traditional institutional boundaries. Issues involved when implementing Web 2.0 assessments are identified to highlight requisite areas for policy improvement in higher education, in particular for academic integrity, copyright and privacy policies

The use of laptop computers in programming lectures

This research explores the effect of the use of laptop computers on students’ learning experiences during lectures. Our methodology involves embedding laptops with visualization software as a learning aid during lectures. We then employ a framework of seven principles of good practice in higher education to evaluate the impact of the use of laptop computers on the learning experience of computer programming students. Overall, we found that students were highly motivated and supportive of this innovative use of laptop computers with lectures.

A longa duração e as estruturas temporais em Fernand Braudel: de sua tese O Mediterrâneo e o Mundo Mediterrânico na Época de Felipe II até o artigo História e Ciências Sociais : a longa duração (1949-1958)

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

TEMPORAL VARIATION OF ACUTE AND LUNG TUMORIGENIC EFFECTS OF URETHAN ON STRAIN A MICE (CHRONOBIOLOGY, CARCINOGENICITY, ANESTHETIC, DNA SYNTHESIS)

The effect of circadian variation on susceptibility to the chemical induction of cancer was assessed utilizing the mouse pulmonary adenoma bioassay. Different groups of male A/Jax mice (standardized for rhythm analysis with light from 0600-1800 and darkness from 1800-0600) each received a single timed i.p. injection of urethan (Bioassay I: 0.25, 0.5 or 1.0 mg/g body weight; Bioassay II: 0.75, 1.0, 1.25 mg/g body weight; Bioassay III: 1.0 mg/g body weight) at the following times, 0100, 0500, 0900, 1300, 1700 or 2100. Mice were sacrificed 16 weeks after treatment. The tumorigenic effect of urethan on the lungs (lung surface pulmonary adenomas) was assessed. In addition, mortality, body weight changes and the anesthetic effect of urethan were determined. The rhythmic pattern of DNA synthesis in the lung and the comparative rhythmic pattern in the liver were assessed using a tritiated thymidine incorporation assay.^ In the first adenoma bioassay, the lung tumorigenic response in mice given the highest dose of urethan exhibited a 12-hour rhythm with a major peak in tumor yield at 0100 and a secondary peak at 1300; reduced yields occurred at 0500-0900 and 2100. The second adenoma bioassay, studied at a 6-month seasonal divergence in time from the first study showed a peak at 1300 but not at 0100. The mice from the third adenoma bioassay, studied at an 11-month seasonal divergence in time from the 2nd study showed an increase in tumor yield during the rest cycle (0900-1700).^ This study found a definite suggestion of a low amplitude rhythm in susceptibility to urethan induced effects. The acute toxic and pharmacological effects correlated to exhibit a maximal effect during dark hours (activity span). This rhythmicity might be explained by an alteration in the amplitude of hepatic metabolism. The chronic carcinogenic response exhibited an opposite pattern. Urethan induced tumor response was greater during daylight hours (rest cycle). This correlated with the slight elevation in DNA synthetic activity found in the lung and liver which might be responsible for the increase in carcinogenic response. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) ^

Quartz content and mass accumulation rates at DSDP Hole 86-576A

The amount and the accumulation rate of quartz were measured in 33 samples from Hole 576A. The amount and source of mineral aerosol being deposited in the northwest Pacific during the Cenozoic are evaluated using these data. When Hole 576A is compared to a Cenozoic record in the central North Pacific, a strong uniformity in the composition of the mineral aerosol across the North Pacific is seen. The data suggest that Hole 576A entered the influence of the westerlies about 15 m.y. ago and that since that time the rates of sediment deposition have increased. Only the dramatic change in quartz accumulation 2.5 m.y. ago can be clearly related to a climatic event, but a gradual increase in quartz accumulation through the Miocene and early Pliocene is probably a result of increasing Northern Hemisphere aridity and intensified atmospheric activity associated with global cooling during the interval.