Imprints of a Primordial Preferred Direction on the Microwave Background

Rotational invariance is a well-established feature of low-energy physics. Violations of this symmetry must be extremely small today, but could have been larger in earlier epochs. In this paper we examine the consequences of a small breaking of rotational invariance during the inflationary era when the primordial density fluctuations were generated. Assuming that a fixed-norm vector picked out a preferred direction during the inflationary era, we explore the imprint it would leave on the cosmic microwave background anisotropy, and provide explicit formulas for the expected amplitudes $$ of the spherical-harmonic coefficients. We suggest that it is natural to expect that the imprint on the primordial power spectrum of a preferred spatial direction is approximately scale-invariant, and examine a simple model in which this is true.Comment: 7 pages, no figures; v5: Corrections, as well as use of more standard convention, in section I

Japanese Whaling in the Pacific Ocean: Defiance of International Whaling Norms in the Name of “Scientific Research,” Culture, and Tradition

Japanese whaling practices have always sparked controversy among the international community. Japan\u27s recent defiance of international environmental norms, however, risks a full-scale trade war led by U.S. demands to reform Japan\u27s whaling practices or suffer trade sanctions. Although the species\u27 endangered status may support sanctioning measures under international law, the United States must exercise caution in imposing restraints on international trade in light of its commitments under international trade agreements. The future of Japanese whaling remains unclear, but the international condemnation and call for restrictions is well-founded on international whaling and environmental norms

Examining the Efficacy of Co-Teaching at the Secondary Level: Special Educators\u27 Perceptions of Their Productivity as Co-Teachers

For decades, federal legislation has mandated the education of students with disabilities to be in their least restrictive environment. Nationally, this has resulted in more than 60% of students with disabilities receiving the majority (80%) of their education in the general education environment. To provide special education services in the general education environment, co-teaching, commonly defined as two educators with distinct expertise providing instruction in a common setting, is often used. The purpose of this non-experimental cross-sectional survey study was to examine special educators’ perceptions of their productivity in co-taught settings and the degree to which their perceptions were related to the variables of role, shared philosophy, training, and self-efficacy. Participants were 210 secondary special educators who co-teach in Kentucky. Results suggest significant differences in perceptions of productivity across all variables, although some are more robust than others. Implications for practice and future research are presented

Determination and impact of surface radiative processes for TOGA COARE

Experiments using atmospheric general circulation models have shown that the atmospheric circulation is very sensitive to small changes in sea surface temperature in the tropical western Pacific Ocean warm pool region. The mutual sensitivity of the ocean and the atmosphere in the warm pool region places stringent requirements on models of the coupled ocean atmosphere system. At present, the situation is such that diagnostic studies using available data sets have been unable to balance the surface energy budget in the warm pool region to better than 50 to 80 W/sq m. The Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) is an observation and modelling program that aims specifically at the elucidation of the physical process which determine the mean and transient state of the warm pool region and the manner in which the warm pool interacts with the global ocean and atmosphere. This project focuses on one very important aspect of the ocean atmosphere interface component of TOGA COARE, namely the temporal and spatial variability of surface radiative fluxes in the warm pool region

Reforming Environmental Law

In 1971, Ezra Mishan brilliantly satirized the views of a Dr. Pangloss, who argued that a world of largely unregulated pollution was optimal because cleanup would involve enormous transaction costs.\u27 Less than 15 years later, Professor Latin uses the same Panglossian argument to rationalize the current regulatory status quo.2 He not only accepts but endorses our extraordinarily crude, costly, litigious and counterproductive system of technology-based environmental controls. Like Mishan\u27s Pangloss, he seems to believe that if it were possible to have a better world, it would exist. Since it does not, the transaction costs involved in regulatory improvement must exceed the benefits. Proposals for basic change accordingly are dismissed as naive utopianism