32151 research outputs found
Sort by
Social identities, norms, and context in student feedback literacy in higher education
Get PDFThe role of social identity and social norms has been largely overlooked in the feedback process. In the current chapter, we explain the potential role we feel social identity (with one’s academic discipline, for example) could play in the development of students’ feedback literacy and how students engage with feedback. To put this in context, we examine historical and contemporary models of feedback literacy to consider how social identities, peer norms and social context feature in those models, implicitly or explicitly. We also review the growing literature on academic discipline social identity and approaches to learning, as a framework for the role of identities in the development of student approaches to feedback. We argue that student identity plays a role in determining students’ engagement with feedback as a part of a deep approach to learning, and argue for a new recognition of this vital aspects of the feedback process
Facilitative interspecific interactions in marine vertebrates across scales : from individuals to ecosystems
Get PDFFunding: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior. Grant Number: 88887.712718/2022-00; National Geographic Society. Grant Number: NGS-101549R-23; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina. Grant Numbers: 2021TR000581, 2021TR387; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico. Grant Numbers: 403127/2022-0, 445301/2020-1, 446014/2024-9, 308913/2022-0, 444601/2024-4; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação de Santa Catarina. Grant Numbers: 2023TR000694, 2023TR001495.Facilitative interspecific interactions (FIIs) confer benefits to at least one participant without detriment to others. Although often less emphasised than antagonistic interactions in ecological studies, this review highlights the significant ecological role of FIIs across biological scales – from individual behaviours to population, community, and ecosystem‐level effects – with a focus on mobile marine vertebrates such as birds, mammals, and fish. These interactions enhance foraging success, shape predator–prey dynamics and contribute to the structure and function of marine ecosystems. FIIs include diverse associations such as multi‐species aggregations among marine apex predators (e.g. dolphins, seabirds, and surface‐feeding fish), mixed‐species shoals, fish cleaning mutualisms, and cooperative foraging involving predators, including humans. At the population level, FIIs can improve survival and fitness, impacting the life histories and population dynamics of marine apex predators, with some species exhibiting a clear dependence on heterospecific facilitation. Despite recent advances, gaps remain in our understanding of how FIIs scale up to influence marine communities and ecosystem processes, limiting their integration into management tools. Ecosystem models – often used to inform management decisions – typically focus on principles of resource flow and species interactions driven by predation and competition, often overlooking facilitation. Integrating FIIs into ecosystem modelling could enhance Ecosystem‐Based Fisheries Management, particularly for conserving vulnerable apex predators that may rely on facilitative interactions. Furthermore, FIIs involving humans and apex predators offer unique opportunities for data collection and model development, improving our understanding of the broader impacts of FII in marine environments, from individual behaviours to ecosystem functioning.Peer reviewe
Understanding how players solve puzzles
Get PDFPen-and-paper puzzles offer a controlled environment to study problem-solving, player behaviour, and engagement. This abstract describes how players interact with unfamiliar puzzles, building upon existing research in the puzzle solving, explanation and hint-systems. We investigated how hints help players in explaining and/or indicating next steps in solving puzzles for a particular puzzle (Binairo). The analysis found that players using hints generally performed better, completed more puzzles, and showed signs of strategic thinking. This suggests that the availability of hints may have implications for playability, engagement and facilitating mental focus.Non peer reviewe
Organosolv processing of Sitka spruce sawdust : large scale preparation of native-like lignin and ligninOX for valorisation
Get PDFFunding: The authors thank Innovate UK (grant 10027463, Unilever PLC, BDC and NJW), the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC, DMM-B PhD) and EaSI-CAT at the University of St Andrews (DJD PhD) for funding.Sitka Spruce (SiS) dominates wood production in Scotland and represents an important source of wood in the UK. A systematic analysis of the lignin obtained from SiS sawdust using methano-, ethano-, butano- and isobutano-solv pretreatments was carried out. Detailed analysis of the resulting lignin using a range of methods (GPC, 31P after phosphitylation and HSQC NMR) and assessment of solvent costs enabled a comparison of the 4 pretreatment methods. The high quality of the lignin obtained reflects its stabilisation through alcohol incorporation at the α-position of the β-O-4 units. Scale up of the butanosolv pretreatment led to the controlled synthesis of a selectively oxidised form of the lignin (SiS ligninOX) on a relatively large scale. Additional insights into the detailed structure of ligninOX are presented. It is argued that this interesting, modified biopolymer may have significant potential for enhanced lignin valorisation.Peer reviewe
II - What can we mean? On practices, norms and pluralisms
Get PDFLast century, Michael Dummett argued that the principles of intuitionistic logic are semantically neutral, and that classical logic involves a distinctive commitment to realism. The ensuing debate over realism and anti-realism and intuitionistic logic has now receded from view. The situation is reversed in mathematics: constructive reasoning has become more popular in the twenty-first century with the rise of proof assistants based on constructive type theory. In this paper, I revisit Dummett’s concerns in the light of these developments, arguing that both constructive and classical reasoning are recognizable and coherent assertoric and inferential practices.Peer reviewe
'...and the evidence was irrefutable' : the politics of evidence in the World Commission on Dams
Get PDFFunding: This work was supported by the UK Research and Innovation Economic and Social Research Council (ES/P011373/1) as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund.Evidence-based policy-making increasingly shapes the practice of advisory bodies, including global environmental assessments (GEAs). Advocates point to the power of evidence (particularly, but not only scientific evidence) to improve policy-making. Here we discuss how political considerations shaped evidence-gathering and use within the World Commission on Dams (WCD), a GEA body which was active between 1998 and 2000. We use insights from semi-structured interviews with participants in the WCD process. First, we argue that the WCD shows that the political nature of evidence-gathering has long been important in GEA processes. Despite rhetoric emphasising the objectivity of its evidence base, the WCD's evidence-gathering was permeated by political considerations, for example in convening stakeholders with opposing views, giving evidence an instrumental purpose in widening participation and epistemic authority beyond just information and learning. Second, we show how a diversity of evidence (in form and substantive content) can challenge mainstream views. Contrary to the conventional emphasis on technical and quantitative data in GEA processes, we show how personal engagement with emotionally charged evidence, including that from grassroots sources and participatory processes within the WCD, created a shared understanding among opposing sides.Peer reviewe
Jesus, history, and revelation : analyzing the impasse between Karl Barth and N. T. Wright
No full textThere presently exists a widespread consensus that Karl Barth and N. T. Wright represent two fundamentally opposed streams of thought within the Christian tradition, with Barth prioritizing revelation, Wright prioritizing history, and never the twain shall meet. In this thesis I challenge such a view, arguing that these two thinkers converge at several points regarding Jesus as the historical reality of revelation, Easter and Pentecost as the conditions for the possibility of recognizing revelation, and the task of the historian. To make this case, my argument proceeds over the course of three parts. In Part I, I present Barth’s understanding of the relationship between history and revelation within the sphere of christology before (Chapter 1) and after (Chapter 2) the revisions in his mature doctrine of election. The central argument of this section is that Barth’s understanding of the relationship between the creaturely ‘form’ and the revelatory ‘content’ materially changes following his identification of Jesus as the subject of election — a change that opens up conceptual space for dialogue with the historical scholarship of someone like Wright. In Part II, by way of contrast, I detail Wright’s understanding of the nature and limits of the discipline of history vis-à-vis the man Jesus (Chapter 3), which is followed by a discussion of his understanding of the nature of divine revelation and the task of theology (Chapter 4). The aim of this section is to challenge the prevailing ‘Barthian’ caricatures of Wright’s work through detailed engagement with his recent Gifford Lectures. Part III brings the project to completion by calling into question the common consensus that presents Barth and Wright as being wholly at odds with one another. By identifying their heretofore unnoticed proximity, however, I do not dissolve the genuine differences that remain between them. Rather, it is precisely through identifying their points of convergence that the actual impasse between them may be identified and fruitful debate may take place
The practical skills passport : a co-curricular program to enhance lab skills confidence in undergraduate Neuroscience and Biology students
Get PDFDuring the years 2020-2022, COVID-19-related restrictions led to fewer in-person lab offerings in Neuroscience and Biology courses, resulting in negative impacts on students’ skills and confidence. In this study, we investigate the impact of a co-curricular undergraduate lab skills program, the Practical Skills Passport (PSP), on student lab confidence. PSP tasks were designed based on informal student feedback and refined via pilot testing by postgraduates with no wet lab experience. Sessions were delivered weekly during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years. Impact was evaluated using a survey of students who had attended at least one PSP session. Students at various stages of study on Neuroscience and Biology undergraduate programs attended the PSP. Survey respondents indicated that they felt their confidence in their lab skills improved following PSP attendance. Survey respondentsrated the PSP positively overall and expressed interest in attending again. Attendance at the PSP peaked in the first few weeks of semester 1 in each year and declined thereafter, indicating that students are more interested in lab skills practice after returning from the summer break. Fewer students attended in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22, probably reflecting the return to all in-person learning as COVID-19 restrictions lifted. In general, ‘core’ lab tasks were more popular in 2021-22, and specialized tasks more popular in 2022-23.Peer reviewe
Extracting coupling-mode spectral densities with two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy
Get PDFFunding: R. d. W. acknowledges support from EPSRC (EP/W524505/1). B. W. L. and J. K. acknowledge support from EPSRC (EP/T014032/1). A. W. C. wishes to acknowledge support from ANR Project ACCEPT (Grant No. ANR-19-CE24-0028).Methods for reconstructing the spectral density of a vibrational environment from experimental data can yield key insights into the impact of the environment on molecular function. Although such experimental methods exist, they generally only access vibrational modes that couple diagonally to the electronic system. Here we present a method for extracting the spectral density of modes that couple to the transition between electronic states, using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy. To demonstrate this, we use a process-tensor method that can simulate two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy measurements in a numerically exact way. To explain how the extraction works, we also derive an approximate analytical solution, which illustrates that the non-Markovianity of the environment plays an essential role in the existence of the simulated signal.Peer reviewe
Collaboratively advancing our understanding of electromagnetic fields : what do you need to know?
Get PDFThis work was funded by a grant from the Knowledge Exchange and Impact initiative from MASTS (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland), a product of the MASTS pooling initiative and their support is gratefully acknowledged. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage St Andrews Research Repository? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!