Monitoring first year Maori students enrolled in selected Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences courses: A report prepared for the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Monitoring first year Maori Students Enrolled in Selected Faculty of Arts andSocial Sciences Courses. The total number of Maori students targeted by this project was 182, representing 93% of the total number of Maori students enrolled in Semester B level one courses. The majority of students participating in this initiative were first year students, although a small number of students taking 100 level courses were second, third or graduate year students. 11 Student views on the monitoring and support initiative Students were provided with the opportunity to comment on the monitoring and support initiative. All students contacted (49) recommended that this intervention continue for future first year Maori students enrolled in FASS

Bringing the Field into the Classroom by Using Dynamic Digital Maps to Engage Undergraduate Students in Petrology Research

This article describes the use of Dynamic Digital Maps (DDMs) in undergraduate petrology courses. A DDM is a stand-alone computer program that presents interactive geologic maps, digital images, movies, animations, text and data. DDMs were developed for use in two undergraduate research projects, and impacts on student learning were evaluated by administering assessments on students before and after participation in one of the projects. Researchers found significant gains in both students' confidence in their ability to do research and to understand petrology, and noted that DDMs are versatile and can potentially be adapted effectively from 100-level introductory geology labs to research-oriented gradute level courses and in a variety of geologic subdisciplines. Educational levels: Graduate or professional, Graduate or professional

The Weak OPE and Dimension-eight Operators

We discuss recent work which identifies a potential flaw in standard treatments of weak decay amplitudes, including that of epsilon'/epsilon. The point is that (contrary to conventional wisdom) dimension-eight operators contribute to weak amplitudes at order G_F alpha_s and without 1/M_W^2 suppression. The effect of dimension-eight operators is estimated to be at the 100% level in a sum rule determination of the operator Q_7^(6) at mu = 1.5 GeV, suggesting that presently available values of mu are too low to justify the neglect of these effects.Comment: 3 pages, using macro ws-p10x7.cls, talk presented at ICHEP2000 (Osaka, Japan

Contractualism and the Counter-Culture Challenge

T. M. Scanlon’s contractualism attempts to give an account of right and wrong in terms of the moral code that could not be reasonably rejected. Reasonable rejectability is then a function of what kind of consequences the general adoption of different moral codes has for different individuals. It has been shown that moral codes should be compared at a lower than 100% level of social acceptance. This leads to the counter-culture challenge. The problem is that the cultural background of the individuals who have not internalized the majority code affects the consequences of the codes and furthermore there does not seem to be a non-arbitrary way of choosing the minority cultures. This chapter first surveys and critically evaluates different responses to this challenge. It then outlines a version of ‘Real World Contractualism’, which offers the best response to the counter-culture challenge

Radiative Neutralino Decay in Supersymmetric Models

The radiative decay Z2-> Z1 gamma proceeds at the one-loop level in the MSSM. It can be the dominant decay mode for the second lightest neutralino Z2 in certain regions of parameter space of supersymmetric models, where either a dynamical and/or kinematic enhancement of the branching fraction occurs. We perform an updated numerical study of this decay mode in both the minimal supergravity model (mSUGRA) and in the more general MSSM framework. In mSUGRA, the largest rates are found in the ``focus point'' region, where the mu parameter becomes small, and the lightest neutralinos become higgsino-like; in this case, radiative branching fraction can reach the 1% level. Our MSSM analysis includes a scan over independent positive and negative gaugino masses. We show branching fractions can reach the 10-100% level even for large values of the parameter tan(beta). These regions of parameter space are realized in supergravity models with non-universal gaugino masses. Measurement of the radiative neutralino branching fraction may help pin down underlying parameters of the fundamental supersymmetric model.Comment: 19 page JHEP file with 8 PS figures; previous version contained figure misplacemen

Deep Uncertainty Surrounding Coastal Flood Risk Projections: A Case Study for New Orleans

Future sea-level rise drives severe risks for many coastal communities. Strategies to manage these risks hinge on a sound characterization of the uncertainties. For example, recent studies suggest that large fractions of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) may rapidly disintegrate in response to rising global temperatures, leading to potentially several meters of sea-level rise during the next few centuries. It is deeply uncertain, for example, whether such an AIS disintegration will be triggered, how much this would increase sea-level rise, whether extreme storm surges intensify in a warming climate, or which emissions pathway future societies will choose. Here, we assess the impacts of these deep uncertainties on projected flooding probabilities for a levee ring in New Orleans, Louisiana. We use 18 scenarios, presenting probabilistic projections within each one, to sample key deeply uncertain future projections of sea-level rise, radiative forcing pathways, storm surge characterization, and contributions from rapid AIS mass loss. The implications of these deep uncertainties for projected flood risk are thus characterized by a set of 18 probability distribution functions. We use a global sensitivity analysis to assess which mechanisms contribute to uncertainty in projected flood risk over the course of a 50-year design life. In line with previous work, we find that the uncertain storm surge drives the most substantial risk, followed by general AIS dynamics, in our simple model for future flood risk for New Orleans