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The vocabulary barrier in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in English Literature
Get PDFEvery year in the United Kingdom hundreds of thousands of pupils in their last year of secondary education take a General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam in English Literature. Yet, every year, attainment is strikingly low: one quarter of those sitting the exam fail to achieve the grade 4 required for a standard pass. This paper sought to understand the reasons for this low attainment by comparing the vocabulary used in texts on the GCSE English Literature specifications with the vocabulary encountered in books that British teenagers read for pleasure. Our analysis shows that the GCSE texts have varied but dense vocabulary, and feature many words that are not encountered in popular books or in a typical spoken language environment. Many of these unfamiliar words are new roots whose meanings cannot be derived from their parts, suggesting that readers will need to rely on context or turn to a dictionary to interpret these. Together, our findings indicate that the GCSE texts will challenge even those pupils who read avidly in their free time, while their less able peers will be unable to access the texts. Our work suggests that a specification review is in order, and that it is critical that this review takes into account the wide variation in reading and language skills that pupils bring into the classroom
A Problem with the Current Methodology for Comparing Search Algorithms and a Proposed Solution
Get PDFThis paper explores how incompletely described tie-break policies can invalidate the experimental results reported in papers on optimal bidirectional heuristic search (BiHS). Experiments usually use a single implementation of an algorithm with its specific tie-break policy. When the tie-breaks are insufficiently described, we show that the results can be irreproducible, vary dramatically under different implementations, and lead to misleading assessments of an algorithm’s performance. To ensure reproducible and representative results, papers should either provide a description of the algorithm’s implementation, i.e., the complete tie-break policy, or alternatively, give results as a summary statistic representative of all possible tie-break implementations. We developed a software tool for this purpose
Hyperparameter Optimization Techniques for Enhanced Machine Learning Energy Forecasting:A Comparative Analysis
Get PDFAdvanced machine learning (ML) models are essential for power system forecasting, yet their performance critically depends on architecture structure and parameter definition. Manual parameter tuning is time-consuming and forecasting errors can significantly impact utilities economically, making ML model optimization vital. This paper presents a comparative analysis of optimization techniques for tuning ML models across diverse energy data sources (photovoltaic (PV), mains, and battery energy storage systems (BESS)) and varying dataset sizes. Evaluation with real-world data on a Deep Neural Network (DNN) for 1-second ahead predictions revealed that Bayesian and meta-learning approaches consistently deliver superior performance with lower computational time. Grid search showed unexpected strength with smaller datasets, while random search and Population-Based Training (PBT) performed well with extensive data but degraded with small datasets. The Bayesian multi objective approach performed comparably to standard Bayesian optimization but with increased computational demands. Results revealed that all models showed 10-15% lower performance with mains data compared to PV, while BESS data yielded results approximately 3% below PV performance. The significant variance across data sources underscores the importance of tailoring optimization strategies to each energy data type’s inherent characteristics, including temporal volatility patterns, noise profiles, and feature correlations. Therefore, effective hyperparameter tuning must consider both computational constraints and the fundamental stochastic properties of the underlying energy systems
Guest Editorial: Impact through Transformative Consumer Research
Get PDFTransformative Consumer Research (TCR) is the pre-eminent sub-field in Marketing addressing the key intersections between consumer theory, marketing practice and policy to explicitly promote solutions for improving societal well-being. Adopting the innovative format of an EJM impact article, this special issue focuses on TCR’s strength in developing rigorous scientific findings in collaboration with stakeholder organisations and groups to alleviate social problems. Representing a first-time collaboration between European Journal of Marketing and the bi-annual Transformative Consumer Research Conference, all papers contained in this issue have emanated from the 2023 TCR Conference, held at Royal Holloway University of London. By focusing on positive individual and collective change, this exclusively impact article populated special issue showcases the breadth and depth of outcomes that TCR uniquely delivers in terms of partnership, community-building and empowerment-focused collaborations to achieve greater societal impact on wide-ranging issues such as, social media mindfulness, misinformation interventions, gender equity in advertising, social impact measurement for nonprofits, and children’s digital well-being
OSTRICH2: Solver for Complex String Constraints
Get PDFWe present OSTRICH2, the latest evolution of the SMT solver OSTRICH for string constraints. OSTRICH2 supports a wide range of complex functions on strings and provides completeness guarantees for a substantial fragment of string constraints, including the straight-line fragment and the chain-free fragment. OSTRICH2 provides full support for the SMT-LIB theory of Unicode strings, extending the standard with several unique features not found in other solvers: among others, parsing of ECMAScript regular expressions (including look‐around assertions and capture groups) and handling of user‐defined string transducers. We empirically demonstrate that OSTRICH2 is competitive to other string solvers on SMT-COMP benchmarks
Bias Control for Mach-Zehnder Modulators:A Gradient-Based Optimization Approach
Get PDFIn this paper, we explore the use of gradient basedoptimization algorithms for automated bias control in Mach-Zehnder Modulators (MZM). We present and demonstrate, experimentally,five gradient descent algorithms; Stochastic GradientDescent (SGD), Stochastic Gradient Descent with Momentum(SGD+M), Adagrad, RMSProp, and Adam, applied to the biascontrol problem in MZMs. We present a method of creating anerror signal from the measured output of an MZM with a lowfrequency pilot tone, and provide a detailed explanation of howeach algorithm is used to both identify the set bias conditionand track the bias condition in the presence of disturbances.Our implementation is capable of identifying and holding thenull condition and the quadrature condition. We evaluate thebias point identification for each algorithm by measuring andanalysing the step response for each method. We test the biastracking of each algorithm using three forms of disturbance;RF power disturbances, temperature disturbance, and long-termbias drift. All tests were conducted at 20GHz. To the best ofour knowledge, this is the first investigation into the applicationon gradient based learning approaches for MZM bias control.This work has great importance on future bias control designand implementations for telecommunications, the space sector,Microwave Photonics (MWP), and defence
Stability and change of basic personal values in mid-to-late adolescence:A 4-year longitudinal study
Get PDFThis paper presents the first longitudinal examination of stability and change in the 19 values of Schwartz’s refined theory. A total of N = 465 high-school students (75% boys) participated in the study. The Portrait Values Questionnaire-Revised was administered four times over three years in mid-to-late adolescence (ages 15–18). We investigated multiple types of stability. At the mean level, Power-Dominance and Universalism-Nature increased significantly in importance compared to the other values. By contrast, the relative importance of Benevolence, Stimulation, Hedonism, and Face decreased significantly. Correlations between the growth parameters of the 19 values showed that change occurred in a coherent and organized manner, mirroring the circular structure of Schwartz’s theory. A medium-to-high degree of rank-order consistency was observed over 3 years, with coefficients ranging from .30 (Self-Direction-Action) to .56 (Conformity-Rules). On average, overall and distinctive profile stabilities were .66 and .45, respectively. Whereas the hierarchical order of values was consistent over time for most adolescents, there were important interindividual differences in stability patterns. The results from this study are discussed and related to earlier findings on value change during adjacent developmental periods. Taken together, they contribute to drawing a roadmap of value development in late adolescence toward early adulthood
Queering Cloud: Music, Gender and Sexuality in Video Games
Get PDFListeners use music to construct, organize and shape their gender and sexual identities. This chapter proposes that music can act as a binding agent between player and game, and may encompass the performance of gender and sexuality in games. Games, and game music, allow us to play with the feeling of performing genders and sexualities beyond our everyday lives. The mimetic and motoric properties of music, linking players with avatars, lets us “feel along” with genders and sexualities in games.In Robert Yang’s game Stick Shift (collected as part of Radiator 2), music is used to present and structure a queer sexual experience for players, inviting them to share in the erotic trajectory. In Final Fantasy VII: Remake, players musically adopt and perform different orientations related to gender and sexuality: the hero Cloud’s heterosexual experience is presented visually and musically, so players can listen and feel along with the music as an analogue for his sensations. Later, a sequence uses rhythm-game mechanics and mimetic motor imagery of the music to help us feel along with an intimate queer encounter. Overall, the chapter argues that games can use music (1) as an analogue for sexual encounters, (2) to invoke musical tropes and traditions to explore desire, (3) for gestures that provide a sense of performance and embodiment, (4) as an opportunity to resist essentialist notions of sexuality, and (5) to open out gender depiction beyond heteronormative assumptions
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