Many bacteria exhibit multicellular behaviour, with individuals within a colony coordinating their actions for communal benefit. One example of complex multicellular phenotypes is myxobacterial fruiting body formation, where thousands of cells aggregate into large three-dimensional structures, within which sporulation occurs. Here we describe a novel theoretical model, which uses Monte Carlo dynamics to simulate and explain multicellular development. The model captures multiple behaviours observed during fruiting, including the spontaneous formation of aggregation centres and the formation and dissolution of fruiting bodies. We show that a small number of physical properties in the model is sufficient to explain the most frequently documented population-level behaviours observed during development in Myxococcus xanthus.
We present the Infobiotics Workbench (IBW), a user-friendly, scalable, and integrated computational environment for the computer-aided design of synthetic biological systems. It supports an iterative workflow that begins with specification of the desired synthetic system, followed by simulation and verification of the system in high-performance environments and ending with the eventual compilation of the system specification into suitable genetic constructs. IBW integrates modeling, simulation, verification, and biocompilation features into a single software suite. This integration is achieved through a new domain-specific biological programming language, the Infobiotics Language (IBL), which tightly combines these different aspects of in silico synthetic biology into a full-stack integrated development environment. Unlike existing synthetic biology modeling or specification languages, IBL uniquely blends modeling, verification, and biocompilation statements into a single file. This allows biologists to incorporate design constraints within the specification file rather than using decoupled and independent formalisms for different in silico analyses. This novel approach offers seamless interoperability across different tools as well as compatibility with SBOL and SBML frameworks and removes the burden of doing manual translations for standalone applications. We demonstrate the features, usability, and effectiveness of IBW and IBL using well-established synthetic biological circuits.
Completion rates in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are disturbingly low. Existing analysis has focused on patterns of resource access and prediction of drop-out using learning analytics. In contrast, the effectiveness of teaching programs in traditional Higher Education (HE) settings internationally is increasingly assessed by surveys measuring student engagement. The conceptualisation of engagement used is much richer and more informative than the way the term is currently interpreted in the context of MOOCs. This paper considers MOOC participation, learning and drop-out in the context of this richer conceptualisation of student engagement. MOOC pedagogy and practice are examined and we evaluate how far HE engagement measures can be successfully used in the MOOC context. We identify the need for a MOOC engagement model and suggest recommendations for basic, initial steps which MOOC developers can make towards improving engagement.
Data relating to university students' engagement is collected internationally via several large-scale student surveys such as the North American National Survey of Student Engagement. The instruments employed measure the extent to which students put their efforts into activities associated with effective learning. It is claimed that these process measures act as a reliable proxy for student attainment, and there appears to be some evidence to support this. So far, there has been little work done to investigate engagement instruments and the data they generate from a subject perspective. This paper brings together data relating to Computer Science (CS) across the range of major engagement surveys. The results of this meta-analysis appear to indicate that CS rates lower than average on many of the major engagement benchmarks and in some cases, considerably so. Particular benchmark areas giving cause for concern are identified prompting questions as to how these results should be interpreted and used in the context of a particular learning domain. We also critique aspects of the surveys themselves, suggesting that further research is needed to better understand their appropriateness for individual subjects or for groups of subjects with shared traits. The paper argues that more qualitative data is required and that other measures (such as student expectation and some subject-specific measures) are needed for a greater understanding of the CS student experience.
This paper describes an approach to program optimisation based on transformations, where temporal logic is used to specify side conditions, and strategies are created which expand the repertoire of transformations and provide a suitable level of abstraction. We demonstrate the power of this approach by developing a set of optimisations using our transformation language and showing how the transformations can be converted into a form which makes it easier to apply them, while maintaining trust in the resulting optimising steps. The approach is illustrated through a transformational case study where we apply several optimisations to a small program.
Despite computer science (CS) having many women associated with it historically, such as Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper, the proportion of female students completing computing degrees is steadily declining, particularly in the USA, UK, and several other Western countries. Many initiatives have been attempted to address this gender imbalance, but the majority have proved to be ineffectual and difficult to sustain in the long term. One important step in the notorious shrinking participation pipeline for CS is the first year of a university degree. The transition from school to university can be a difficult time for many students and, for females in CS, issues of readjusting expectations and of developing their identity within a predominantly male cohort may present an additional challenge.In this paper, we analyse data from the North American National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and discuss gender-distinct perceptions of the discipline and factors relating to retention of students, particularly female students, within the context of a small UK survey of first-year students' expectations at the start of their studies. We suggest several areas emerging from the investigation which have implications for CS curricula and teaching practice.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.