On transverse momentum event–by–event fluctuations in string hadronic models

Transverse momentum event-by-event fluctuations are studied within the string-hadronic model of high energy nuclear collisions, LUCIAE. Data on non-statistical pT fluctuations in p+p interactions are reproduced. Fluctuations of similar magnitude are predicted for nucleus-nucleus collisions, in contradiction to the preliminary NA49 results. The introduction of a string clustering mechanism (Firecracker Model) leads to a further, significant increase of pT fluctuations for nucleus-nucleus collisions. Secondary hadronic interactions, as implemented in LUCIAE, cause only a small reduction of pT fluctuations

Citizen Scientists and Artists: Integrating Arts and Technology to Teach the Effects of Climate Change on Bird Migration

Ways to incorporate climate change into K-12 curricula are of growing interest to many science educators. The International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space (ICARUS) examines animal and bird migrations as a lens to understand climate change aiding educators with its emphasis on technological imagining in science and visual arts teaching and learning. This article presents an interdisciplinary unit pertaining to bird migration and climate change that integrates the arts and technology by placing upper-elementary students in the position of being citizen scientists and artists, leading to a culminating art installation project. The unit shows how a variety of digital resources available in an online environment allow students to become resourceful problem solvers, using technology to create and collaborate. Citizen science and the visual arts enable students to envision and creatively document evidence to inform solutions designed to assist in altering climate change. Taken together, this effort supports students to learn scientific concepts of altered bird migration due to climate change by investigating through the integration of the visual arts and technology

Implementing PCAC in Nonperturbative Models of Pion Production

Traditional few-body descriptions of pion production use integral equations to sum the strong interactions nonperturbatively. Although much physics is thereby included, there has not been a practical way of incorporating the constraints of chiral symmetry into such approaches. Thus the traditional few-body descriptions fail to reflect the underlying theory of strong interactions, QCD, which is largely chirally symmetric. In addition, the lack of chiral symmetry in the few-body approaches means that their predictions of pion production are in principle not consistent with the partial conservation of axial current (PCAC), a fact that has especially large consequences at low energies. We discuss how the recent introduction of the ``gauging of equations method'' can be used to include PCAC into traditional few-body descriptions and thereby solve this long standing problemComment: Contribution to Proceedings, 1st Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, Noda/Kashiwa, Japan, 23-28 August 1999, to be published by Springer-Verlag as "Few-Body Systems Supplement". 7 pages, revtex, epsf, 3 Postscript figure

Co-location epidemic tracking on London public transports using low power mobile magnetometer

The public transports provide an ideal means to enable contagious diseases transmission. This paper introduces a novel idea to detect co-location of people in such environment using just the ubiquitous geomagnetic field sensor on the smart phone. Essentially, given that all passengers must share the same journey between at least two consecutive stations, we have a long window to match the user trajectory. Our idea was assessed over a painstakingly survey of over 150 kilometres of travelling distance, covering different parts of London, using the overground trains, the underground tubes and the buses

The tutor as an agent of change

Quality and continuous improvement in Higher Education requires participation from tutors performing the role of change agents through action research designed to enhance the use of ICT in Higher Education. This tutor conducted an action research at Institut Perguruan Sarawak where ICT was infused into the pedagogy. This case study documents the use of a DVD entitled “Coach Carter” together with internet investigation to stimulate students to use ICT in innovative pedagogy. The theoretical perspective is Interpretivism and the research methodology is Phenomenology. Interpretivism is concerned with people constructing meaning. Phenomenology calls upon the researchers to break away from habitual patterns of thought that limit thinking. Data collection included the use of different formats of reflection sheets. Data analysis was done with a “Three Step Writing Method” moving from Protocol Writing, to Hermeneutic Writing and Phenomenology. The report on this action research was used as to teach students the process of research as a way to continuous improvement. It was also used to stimulate students to infuse ICT in innovative pedagogy. Collegial dialogue between this tutor and the Director of OUM Sarawak led to tutor – administrator collaboration in sharing good practices through the OUM Learning Management System. This case study indicates that tutors can be agents of change in using ICT in Higher education by conducting action research. (Authors' abstract

Variation in foraging activity of Acanthochitona garnoti (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) from different habitats

Click on the link to view the abstract.S. Afc. J. Zool. 1997,32(3

Epidemic contact tracing with smartphone sensors

Contact tracing is widely considered as an effective procedure in the fight against epidemic diseases. However, one of the challenges for technology based contact tracing is the high number of false positives, questioning its trust-worthiness and efficiency amongst the wider population for mass adoption. To this end, this paper proposes a novel, yet practical smartphone-based contact tracing approach, employing WiFi and acoustic sound for relative distance estimate, in addition to the air pressure and the magnetic field for ambient environment matching. We present a model combining 6 smartphone sensors, prioritising some of them when certain conditions are met. We empirically verified our approach in various realistic environments to demonstrate an achievement of up to 95% fewer false positives, and 62% more accurate than Bluetooth-only system. To the best of our knowledge, this paper was one of the first work to propose a combination of smartphone sensors for contact tracing

Localized and controlled delivery of nitric oxide to the conventional outflow pathway via enzyme biocatalysis: towards therapy for Glaucoma

Nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to lower intraocular pressure (IOP), however its therapeutic effects on outflow physiology are location- and dose-dependent. Here, a NO delivery platform that directly targets the resistance-generating region of the conventional outflow pathway and locally liberates a controlled dose of NO is reported. An increase in outflow facility (decrease in IOP) is demonstrated in mouse model