Open Knowledge Resources for Higher Education: Scholarly Publications, Course Materials, Academic Software

This paper will explain why electronic knowledge resources in academia cannot only be regarded as private commodities, but also as public goods. After sketching a concept of public goods for a postnational, global society, three types of electronic knowledge resources are distinguished: scholarly publications, course materials and academic software. With the help of practical examples, similarities between these resources are developed. Finally, it will be explained what advantages the status of public good for knowledge resources would have and how it could be achieved by the academic community

The Dimensions of Field Theory : From Particles to Strings

This is an editorial summary of the contents of a Book comprising a set of Articles by acknowledged experts dealing with the impact of Field Theory on major areas of physics (from elementary particles through condensed matter to strings), arranged subjectwise under six broad heads. The Book which emphasizes the conceptual, logical and formal aspects of the state of the art in these respective fields, carries a Foreword by Freeman Dyson, and is to be published by the Indian National Science Academy on the occasion of the International Mathematical Year 2000. The authors and full titles of all the Articles (33) are listed sequentially (in the order of their first appearance in the narration) under the bibliography at the end of this Summary, while a few of the individual articles to appear in the Book are already available on the LANL internet.Comment: LaTex file, 24 page

SME Growth and Survival in Vietnam: Did Direct Government Support Matter?

In this paper we provide evidence on the survival and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam relying on three partly overlapping enterprise surveys sampled during the period 1990-2002. Our empirical results indicate that classical determinants of performance including firm age, firm size, location, ownership, degree of capital intensive production and the type of activity are also important in Vietnam. In addition to the traditional indicators we analyze the effect of government support. Government credit assistance during start-up contributed significantly to the growth of Vietnamese SMEs in the late 1990s, but the importance of this kind of support may be diminishing as new firms do not seem to benefit from this form of support. In contrast, the importance of legal advice appears to be increasing.SME dynamics; government policy; Vietnam

Novel copper-containing membrane monooxygenases (CuMMOs) encoded by alkane-utilizing Betaproteobacteria.

Copper-containing membrane monooxygenases (CuMMOs) are encoded by xmoCAB(D) gene clusters and catalyze the oxidation of methane, ammonia, or some short-chain alkanes and alkenes. In a metagenome constructed from an oilsands tailings pond we detected an xmoCABD gene cluster with <59% derived protein sequence identity to genes from known bacteria. Stable isotope probing experiments combined with a specific xmoA qPCR assay demonstrated that the bacteria possessing these genes were incapable of methane assimilation, but did grow on ethane and propane. Single-cell amplified genomes (SAGs) from propane-enriched samples were screened with the specific PCR assay to identify bacteria possessing the target gene cluster. Multiple SAGs of Betaproteobacteria belonging to the genera Rhodoferax and Polaromonas possessed homologues of the metagenomic xmoCABD gene cluster. Unexpectedly, each of these two genera also possessed other xmoCABD paralogs, representing two additional lineages in phylogenetic analyses. Metabolic reconstructions from SAGs predicted that neither bacterium encoded enzymes with the potential to support catabolic methane or ammonia oxidation, but that both were capable of higher n-alkane degradation. The involvement of the encoded CuMMOs in alkane oxidation was further suggested by reverse transcription PCR analyses, which detected elevated transcription of the xmoA genes upon enrichment of water samples with propane as the sole energy source. Enrichments, isotope incorporation studies, genome reconstructions, and gene expression studies therefore all agreed that the unknown xmoCABD operons did not encode methane or ammonia monooxygenases, but rather n-alkane monooxygenases. This study broadens the known diversity of CuMMOs and identifies these enzymes in non-nitrifying Betaproteobacteria

From Polygons to Ultradiscrete Painlev\'e Equations

The rays of tropical genus one curves are constrained in a way that defines a bounded polygon. When we relax this constraint, the resulting curves do not close, giving rise to a system of spiraling polygons. The piecewise linear transformations that preserve the forms of those rays form tropical rational presentations of groups of affine Weyl type. We present a selection of spiraling polygons with three to eleven sides whose groups of piecewise linear transformations coincide with the B\"acklund transformations and the evolution equations for the ultradiscrete Painlev\'e equations

Skyrme functional with tensor terms from \textit{ab initio} calculations of neutron-proton drops

A new Skyrme functional devised to account well for standard nuclear properties as well as for spin and spin-isospin properties is presented. The main novelty of this work relies on the introduction of tensor terms guided by \textit{ab initio} relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations of neutron-proton drops. The inclusion of tensor term does not decrease the accuracy in describing bulk properties of nuclei, experimental data of some selected spherical nuclei such as binding energies, charge radii, and spin-orbit splittings can be well fitted. The new functional is applied to the investigation of various collective excitations such as the Giant Monopole Resonance (GMR), the Isovector Giant Dipole Resonance (IVGDR), the Gamow-Teller Resonance (GTR), and the Spin-Dipole Resonance (SDR). The overall description with the new functional is satisfactory and the tensor terms are shown to be important particularly for the improvement of the Spin-Dipole Resonance results. Predictions for the neutron skin thickness based on the non-energy weighted sum rule of the Spin-Dipole Resonance are also given.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure

Enhancing Moodle to meet the needs of 200,000 distance learners

In 2005 The Open University UK selected Moodle as the basis of its institutional virtual learning environment. Since then, the system has been integrated with existing elearning and administrative systems at the University and considerably enhanced during an extensive development programme costing around €8m and taking nearly three years. Many policy issues have emerged which needed to be tackled alongside the software developments in order for the platform to be adopted by the 7,000 tutors and nearly 200,000 students of the University. The Moodle system has proven to be reliable, scalable and customisable and has resulted in a more flexible system for the Open University than the commercial alternatives. This paper examines some of the many enhancements made to Moodle by the Open University, most of which have been fed back into the product for the benefit of other Moodle users. It describes some of the policy and pedagogical issues which have emerged during the roll-out of Moodle across the University

Proposal of a learning styles identification tool for sakai virtual learning environment

We are living in an essentially technological world, in which technology facilitates and promotes the development of institutions and the people who work or study in these institutions. Thus, it is claimed that technology should increasingly meet people’s needs according to their goals, interests and learning styles. Aiming to improve the teaching and learning process, and based on a perspective of adaptation of the learning environment to the learner’s needs, we present, in this article, the integration of learning styles in learning management systems by integrating the Honey-Alonso Learning Styles Questionnaire (CHAEA) in Sakai collaborative learning environment, which was adopted in a higher education institution