Field Decomposition and the Ground State Structure of SU(2) Yang-Mills Theory

We compute the effective potential of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory using the background field method and the Faddeev-Niemi decomposition of the gauge fields. In particular, we find that the potential will depend on the values of two scalar fields in the decomposition and that its structure will give rise to a symmetry breaking.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Typos corrected and title change

National Transportation Week: Second Week in May

The topic of transportation incorporates a vast amount of divergent information. The subject matter varies greatly, and includes titles ranging from Camels of the Outback to The Great American Motion Sickness; or Why You Can't Get There from Here. To establish boundaries for this resource guide, the present authors referred to Public Law 87–449, 14 May 1962, which authorized the president to proclaim an annual National Transportation Week. Using this as a basis, they defined transportation As the movement of people or goods from one place to another, and included a little tourism to break up the concrete and steel. While some historical materials are included, this resource guide emphasizes modes of transportation currently used in the United States

Evaluation Tool for Collecting Statewide Outcomes for Single-Session Programs

Evaluation is critical to demonstrating program value and impact and to better communicating outcomes to stakeholders. Purdue Extension Health and Human Sciences (HHS Extension) created an evaluation tool based on the need to collect statewide metrics on a standardized set of questions addressing the topics of food, family, money, and health. This evaluation tool, Survey Builder, allows Extension educators to customize evaluations for single-session programs using a streamlined online approach. Data from Survey Builder allow HHS Extension to demonstrate the collective outcomes of statewide programming efforts. Survey Builder was developed to be used by other organizations as well

GIS: a new component of public services

Focuses on the major roles of academic libraries in public services as they establish geographic information systems. Developments of collections to incorporate GIS; Provision of access to spatial information and software tools; Facilitation of intellectual access to GIS concepts and applications

Experiments with online tools to deliver off-campus library instruction

Delivering library instruction to off-campus students offers numerous challenges. The varying needs of the teaching faculty and user need to be considered. Does the user need general information, specific data- base searching techniques, or want to know more about ILLiad? What about "point of need?" Can this information be integrated into the off-campus classes? At Appalachian State University Libraries we are using an array of online tools and are exploring others. An interactive guide, Virtual Research @ ASU Libraries: A Guide for Off-campus Students, uses animations to provide information about library services and procedures. With faculty in Instructional Technology, we built a virtual library to deliver research assistance within AppEdTech (a 3-D virtual teaching environment). We have provided orientations to the virtual library (led by a librarian avatar) via voice-over-IP. WebCT also provides a number of opportunities to deliver information, including the faculty professional development course, Preparing to Teach Online, which contains a library support and information literacy module. During 2006, we will experiment with screen casting to pro- vide mini tutorials, small group discussions within WebCT and offering Instant Messaging to our distance learning community