663 research outputs found
Underbanked and Foreign Reserve Deficient: Is Cryptocurrency the Strategic Panacea for Small South Pacific Nations?
A number of small South Pacific nations suffer from a lack of robust international banking relationships and a shortage of foreign reserves. The Republic of the Marshall Islands decided a solution to these problems was to create a sovereign cryptocurrency for the country. Other small nations in the region are attempting to follow the Marshall Islands and create their own cryptocurrencies. This case explores the opportunities and threats of such a bold financial experiment and raises questions concerning the future of sovereign cryptocurrency in the region and beyond
Invest In The Success Of Online Programs At The University? Mentor Professors
The Distance Education Mentoring Program (DEMP) is a unique program designed to assist faculty with developing and teaching quality online courses. This paper describes a survey assessment of the 92 faculty members who completed the program over the last four years and looks at preliminary data determining the program’s success
Measurement of the Fermi Constant by FAST
An initial measurement of the lifetime of the positive muon to a precision of
16 parts per million (ppm) has been performed with the FAST detector at the
Paul Scherrer Institute. The result is tau_mu = 2.197083 (32) (15) microsec,
where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. The muon
lifetime determines the Fermi constant, G_F = 1.166353 (9) x 10^-5 GeV^-2 (8
ppm).Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
An Investigation of University Students' Ownership, Usage, and Skill with Technology: Key Factors for Course Design
Abstract Students at a regional campus of a Midwestern university were surveyed using an online questionnaire to determine their ownership, skill, and use of technological devices. Four hundred ninety-three students responded to the survey. It was found that the survey sample mirrored the student population at the university. Students owned and used a wide variety of electronic devices. Eighty five percent of the students owned laptop computers, 62% digital phones, 60% desktop computers, and 52% gaming systems. Students used electronic devices an average of 6.03 hours per week on classroom activities and 3.93 hours per week surfing the Internet for pleasure. They perceived themselves as being very skilled at using email, surfing the web, and word processing. It was also found that there was a significant correlation between students' ownership of and skill with educational technology and their experience with Blackboard. Technological barriers were found to have a negative impact on students' experience with Blackboard. Those barriers also negatively impacted their technological use and skill. A simple linear regression model explains that students' experience with Blackboard is enhanced by having greater skill with technology, but is diminished when confronted with technological barriers. Implications for course design are discussed
Isotopic Dependence of the Nuclear Caloric Curve
The A/Z dependence of projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies has
been studied with the ALADIN forward spectrometer at SIS. A stable beam of
124Sn and radioactive beams of 124La and 107Sn at 600 MeV per nucleon have been
used in order to explore a wide range of isotopic compositions. Chemical
freeze-out temperatures are found to be nearly invariant with respect to the
A/Z of the produced spectator sources, consistent with predictions for expanded
systems. Small Coulomb effects (\Delta T \approx 0.6 MeV) appear for residue
production near the onset of multifragmentation.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publ. in Phys. Rev. Let
Tracing a phase transition with fluctuations of the largest fragment size: Statistical multifragmentation models and the ALADIN S254 data
A phase transition signature associated with cumulants of the largest
fragment size distribution has been identified in statistical
multifragmentation models and examined in analysis of the ALADIN S254 data on
fragmentation of neutron-poor and neutron-rich projectiles. Characteristics of
the transition point indicated by this signature are weakly dependent on the
A/Z ratio of the fragmenting spectator source. In particular, chemical
freeze-out temperatures are estimated within the range 5.9 to 6.5 MeV. The
experimental results are well reproduced by the SMM model.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the International Workshop on
Multifragmentation and Related Topics (IWM2009), Catania, Italy, November
2009
Discriminant Analysis and Secondary-Beam Charge Recognition
The discriminant-analysis method has been applied to optimize the exotic-beam
charge recognition in a projectile fragmentation experiment. The experiment was
carried out at the GSI using the fragment separator (FRS) to produce and select
the relativistic secondary beams, and the ALADIN setup to measure their
fragmentation products following collisions with Sn target nuclei. The beams of
neutron poor isotopes around 124La and 107Sn were selected to study the isospin
dependence of the limiting temperature of heavy nuclei by comparing with
results for stable 124Sn projectiles. A dedicated detector to measure the
projectile charge upstream of the reaction target was not used, and alternative
methods had to be developed. The presented method, based on the multivariate
discriminant analysis, allowed to increase the efficacy of charge recognition
up to about 90%, which was about 20% more than achieved with the simple scalar
methods.Comment: 6 pages, 7 eps figures, elsart, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth.
Neutron recognition in the LAND detector for large neutron multiplicity
The performance of the LAND neutron detector is studied. Using an
event-mixing technique based on one-neutron data obtained in the S107
experiment at the GSI laboratory, we test the efficiency of various analytic
tools used to determine the multiplicity and kinematic properties of detected
neutrons. A new algorithm developed recently for recognizing neutron showers
from spectator decays in the ALADIN experiment S254 is described in detail. Its
performance is assessed in comparison with other methods. The properties of the
observed neutron events are used to estimate the detection efficiency of LAND
in this experiment.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
Gross Properties and Isotopic Phenomena in Spectator Fragmentation
A systematic study of isotopic effects in the break-up of projectile
spectators at relativistic energies has been performed with the ALADiN
spectrometer at the GSI laboratory. Searching for signals of criticality in the
fragment production we have applied the model independent universal
fluctuations theory already proposed to track criticality signals in
multifragmentation to our data. The fluctuation of the largest fragment charge
and of the asymmetry of the two and three largest fragments and their bimodal
distribution have also been analysed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, IX International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus
Collisions, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 28 - September 1, 200
Isospin dependent multifragmentation of relativistic projectiles
The N/Z dependence of projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies has
been studied with the ALADIN forward spectrometer at the GSI Schwerionen
Synchrotron (SIS). Stable and radioactive Sn and La beams with an incident
energy of 600 MeV per nucleon have been used in order to explore a wide range
of isotopic compositions. For the interpretation of the data, calculations with
the statistical multifragmentation model for a properly chosen ensemble of
excited sources were performed. The parameters of the ensemble, representing
the variety of excited spectator nuclei expected in a participant-spectator
scenario, are determined empirically by searching for an optimum reproduction
of the measured fragment-charge distributions and correlations. An overall very
good agreement is obtained. The possible modification of the liquid-drop
parameters of the fragment description in the hot freeze-out environment is
studied, and a significant reduction of the symmetry-term coefficient is found
necessary to reproduce the mean neutron-to-proton ratios /Z and the
isoscaling parameters of Z<=10 fragments. The calculations are, furthermore,
used to address open questions regarding the modification of the surface-term
coefficient at freeze-out, the N/Z dependence of the nuclear caloric curve, and
the isotopic evolution of the spectator system between its formation during the
initial cascade stage of the reaction and its subsequent breakup.Comment: 23 pages, 29 figures, published in Physical Review
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