On Simulating Liouvillian Flow From Quantum Mechanics Via Wigner Functions

The interconnection between quantum mechanics and probabilistic classical mechanics for a free relativistic particle is derived in terms of Wigner functions (WF) for both Dirac and Klein-Gordon (K-G) equations. Construction of WF is achieved by first defining a bilocal 4-current and then taking its Fourier transform w.r.t. the relative 4-coordinate. The K-G and Proca cases also lend themselves to a closely parallel treatment provided the Kemmer- Duffin beta-matrix formalism is employed for the former. Calculation of WF is carried out in a Lorentz-covariant fashion by standard `trace' techniques. The results are compared with a recent derivation due to Bosanac.Comment: 9 pages, Latex; email: [email protected]

Teaching teamwork skills in Australian higher education business disciplines

Australian employers continue to indicate that the development of teamwork skills in graduates is as important as mastering technical skills required for a particular career. In Australia, the reporting on the teaching of teamwork skills has emanated across a range of disciplines including health and engineering, with less of a focus on business related disciplines. Although Australian university business schools appear to value the importance and relevance of developing teamwork skills, implementation of the teaching, learning and assessment of teamwork skills remains somewhat of a pedagogical conundrum. The aim of this paper is to present a systematic literature review so as to better understand the salient issues associated with teaching teamwork skills in Australian higher education business disciplines

Applying the Kirkpatrick model: Evaluating an Interaction for Learning Framework curriculum intervention

Global perspectives and interpersonal and intercultural communication competencies are viewed as a priority within higher education. For management educators, globalisation, student mobility and widening pathways present numerous challenges, but afford opportunities for curriculum innovation. The Interaction for Learning Framework (ILF) seeks to help academics introduce curriculum change and increase peer interaction opportunities. Although the framework has many strengths to recommend it, the ILF does not provide a process by which academics can easily evaluate the outcomes produced by its implementation. In this paper, we examine the efficacy of a popular four level training evaluation framework – the Kirkpatrick model – as a way to appraise the outcomes of ILF-based curriculum interventions. We conclude that the Kirkpatrick model offers educators a straightforward basis for evaluation of interventions, but that as with any model the approach to evaluation should be adapted to the particular setting and circumstances

From Conflict to Balance: Challenges for Dual-Earner Families Managing Technostress and Work Exhaustion in the Post-Pandemic Scenario

Within the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has contributed to changing many aspects of individual and collective life. Focusing on professional life, the forced shift to remote working modalities, the consequent blurring of work-family (WF) boundaries, and the difficulties for parents in childrearing have significantly impacted family routines. These challenges have been more evident for some specific vulnerable categories of workers, such as dual-earner parents. Accordingly, the WF literature investigated the antecedents and outcomes of WF dynamics, highlighting positive and negative aspects of digital opportunities that may affect WF variables and their consequences on workers' well-being. In view of the above, the present study aims to investigate the key role of WF conflict and WF balance in mediating the relationship between technostress and work exhaustion. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to examine direct and indirect relationships among technostress, WF conflict, WF balance, and work exhaustion. Respondents were 376 Italian workers, specifically dual-earner parents who have at least one child. Results and implications are discussed with specific reference to the organizational policies and interventions that could be developed to manage technostress and WF conflict, fostering individual and social adjustment to the new normal

The Asymptotic Giant Branch and the Tip of the Red Giant Branch as Probes of Star Formation History: The Nearby Dwarf Irregular Galaxy KKH 98

We investigate the utility of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and the red giant branch (RGB) as probes of the star formation history (SFH) of the nearby (D=2.5 Mpc) dwarf irregular galaxy, KKH 98. Near-infrared (IR) Keck Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics (AO) images resolve 592 IR bright stars reaching over 1 magnitude below the Tip of the Red Giant Branch. Significantly deeper optical (F475W and F814W) Hubble Space Telescope images of the same field contain over 2500 stars, reaching to the Red Clump and the Main Sequence turn-off for 0.5 Gyr old populations. Compared to the optical color magnitude diagram (CMD), the near-IR CMD shows significantly tighter AGB sequences, providing a good probe of the intermediate age (0.5 - 5 Gyr) populations. We match observed CMDs with stellar evolution models to recover the SFH of KKH 98. On average, the galaxy has experienced relatively constant low-level star formation (5 x 10^-4 Mo yr^-1) for much of cosmic time. Except for the youngest main sequence populations (age < 0.1 Gyr), which are typically fainter than the AO data flux limit, the SFH estimated from the the 592 IR bright stars is a reasonable match to that derived from the much larger optical data set. Differences between the optical and IR derived SFHs for 0.1 - 1 Gyr populations suggest that current stellar evolution models may be over-producing the AGB by as much as a factor of three in this galaxy. At the depth of the AO data, the IR luminous stars are not crowded. Therefore these techniques can potentially be used to determine the stellar populations of galaxies at significantly further distances.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figs, accepted for publication in Ap

Lie Superalgebras and the Multiplet Structure of the Genetic Code II: Branching Schemes

Continuing our attempt to explain the degeneracy of the genetic code using basic classical Lie superalgebras, we present the branching schemes for the typical codon representations (typical 64-dimensional irreducible representations) of basic classical Lie superalgebras and find three schemes that do reproduce the degeneracies of the standard code, based on the orthosymplectic algebra osp(5|2) and differing only in details of the symmetry breaking pattern during the last step.Comment: 34 pages, 9 tables, LaTe

Uncertainties in stellar evolution models: convective overshoot

In spite of the great effort made in the last decades to improve our understanding of stellar evolution, significant uncertainties remain due to our poor knowledge of some complex physical processes that require an empirical calibration, such as the efficiency of the interior mixing related to convective overshoot. Here we review the impact of convective overshoot on the evolution of stars during the main Hydrogen and Helium burning phases.Comment: Proc. of the workshop "Asteroseismology of stellar populations in the Milky Way" (Sesto, 22-26 July 2013), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, (eds. A. Miglio, L. Girardi, P. Eggenberger, J. Montalban

CLASH-VLT: Strangulation of cluster galaxies in MACSJ0416.1-2403 as seen from their chemical enrichment

(abridged) We explore the Frontier Fields cluster MACS J0416.1-2403 at z=0.3972 with VIMOS/VLT spectroscopy from the CLASH-VLT survey covering a region which corresponds to almost three virial radii. We measure fluxes of 5 emission lines of 76 cluster members enabling us to unambiguously derive O/H gas metallicities, and also SFRs from Halpha. For intermediate massses we find a similar distribution of cluster and field galaxies in the MZR and mass vs. sSFR diagrams. Bulge-dominated cluster galaxies have on average lower sSFRs and higher O/Hs compared to their disk-dominated counterparts. We use the location of galaxies in the projected velocity vs. position phase-space to separate our cluster sample into a region of objects accreted longer time ago and a region of recently accreted and infalling galaxies. We find a higher fraction of accreted metal-rich galaxies (63%) compared to the fraction of 28% of metal-rich galaxies in the infalling regions. Intermediate mass galaxies falling into the cluster for the first time are found to be in agreement with predictions of the fundamental metallicity relation. In contrast, for already accreted star-forming galaxies of similar masses, we find on average metallicities higher than predicted by the models. This trend is intensified for accreted cluster galaxies of the lowest mass bin, that display metallicities 2-3 times higher than predicted by models with primordial gas inflow. Environmental effects therefore strongly influence gas regulations and control gas metallicities of log(M/Msun)<10.2 (Salpeter IMF) cluster galaxies. We also investigate chemical evolutionary paths of model galaxies with and without inflow of gas showing that strangulation is needed to explain the higher metallicities of accreted cluster galaxies. Our results favor a strangulation scenario in which gas inflow stops for log(M/Msun)<10.2 galaxies when accreted by the cluster.Comment: Version better matched to the published version, including table with observed and derived quantities for the 76 cluster galaxie