An inside story: tracking experiences, challenges and successes in a joint specialist performing arts college

In England the government’s specialist schools initiative is transforming the nature of secondary education. A three-year longitudinal case study tracked the effects of specialist performing arts college status on two schools. The sites were a mainstream school drawing pupils from an area of high social deprivation and disadvantage, and a special school catering for pupils with profound and \ud multiple learning difficulties, which were awarded joint performing arts college status. The government’s \ud preferred criterion for judging the success of specialist schools is improvement in whole-school examination results. The authors argue that this is a crude and inappropriate measure for these case study schools and probably others. Using questionnaires, interviews and documentation they tell an ‘inside story’ of experiences, challenges and achievements, from the perspectives of the schools’ mangers, staff and pupils. Alternative ‘value-added’ features emerged that were positive indicators of enrichment and success in both schools

Characterization of 40-Gbit/s pulses generated using a lithium niobate modulator at 1550 nm using frequency resolved optical gating

The characteristics of 40-Gbit/s pulses generated by exploiting the nonlinear characteristics of a Mach-Zender Lithium Niobate modulator are presented. A high spectral resolution frequency resolved optical gating apparatus has been developed to allow for the complete characterization of the intensity and phase of these pulses. The use of these measurements to simplify the design and optimization of an 80-Gbit/s pulse source, based on this 40-Gbit/s source followed by a nonlinear fiber compressor and multiplexer, is also demonstrated

Tight constraints on the existence of additional planets around HD 189733

We report a transit timing study of the transiting exoplanetary system HD 189733. In total we observed ten transits in 2006 and 2008 with the 2.6-m Nordic Optical Telescope, and two transits in 2007 with the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope. We used Markov-Chain Monte Carlo simulations to derive the system parameters and their uncertainties, and our results are in a good agreement with previously published values. We performed two independent analyses of transit timing residuals to place upper mass limits on putative perturbing planets. The results show no evidence for the presence of planets down to 1 Earth mass near the 1:2 and 2:1 resonance orbits, and planets down to 2.2 Earth masses near the 3:5 and 5:3 resonance orbits with HD 189733b. These are the strongest limits to date on the presence of other planets in this system.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRA

Optimization of optical data transmitters for 40-Gb/s lightwave systems using frequency resolved optical gating

The measurement technique of frequency resolved optical gating has been used to optimize the phase of a 40-GHz train of optical pulses generated using a continuous-wave laser gated with an external modulator. This technique will be vital for optimization of optical transmitters to be used in systems operating at 40 Gb/s and beyond, as standard measurement techniques will not suffice to optimize such high-speed systems

The merging/AGN connection: A case for 3D spectroscopy

We discuss an ongoing study of the connection between galaxy merging/interaction and AGN activity, based on integral field spectroscopy. We focus on the search for AGN ionization in the central regions of mergers, previously not classified as AGNs. We present here the science case, the current status of the project, and plans for future observations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure, Euro3D Science Workshop, Cambridge, May 2003, AN, accepte

Isomorphism between Non-Riemannian gravity and Einstein-Proca-Weyl theories extended to a class of Scalar gravity theories

We extend the recently proved relation between certain models of Non-Riemannian gravitation and Einstein- Proca-Weyl theories to a class of Scalar gravity theories. This is used to present a Black-Hole Dilaton solution with non-Riemannian connection.Comment: 13 pages, tex file, accepted in Class. Quant. Gra

A nonlinear quantum model of the Friedmann universe

A discussion is given of the quantisation of a physical system with finite degrees of freedom subject to a Hamiltonian constraint by treating time as a constrained classical variable interacting with an unconstrained quantum state. This leads to a quantisation scheme that yields a Schrodinger-type equation which is in general nonlinear in evolution. Nevertheless it is compatible with a probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics and in particular the construction of a Hilbert space with a Euclidean norm is possible. The new scheme is applied to the quantisation of a Friedmann Universe with a massive scalar field whose dynamical behaviour is investigated numerically.Comment: 11 pages of text + 4 pages for 8 figure

Microjansky radio sources in DC0107-46 (Abell 2877)

The cluster DC0107-46 (Abell 2877) lies within the Phoenix Deep Survey, made at 1.4 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Of 89 known optical cluster members, 70 lie within the radio survey area. Of these 70 galaxies, 15 (21%) are detected, with luminosities as faint as 10^20 W/Hz. Spectroscopic observations are available for 14/15 of the radio-detected cluster galaxies. Six galaxies show only absorption features and are typical low-luminosity AGN radio sources. One galaxy hosts a Seyfert 2 nucleus, two are star-forming galaxies, and the remaining five may be star-forming galaxies, AGNs, or both.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, Accepted by ApJS (v128n2p JUN 2000 issue

The Chandra XBootes Survey - III: Optical and Near-IR Counterparts

The XBootes Survey is a 5-ks Chandra survey of the Bootes Field of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS). This survey is unique in that it is the largest (9.3 deg^2), contiguous region imaged in X-ray with complementary deep optical and near-IR observations. We present a catalog of the optical counterparts to the 3,213 X-ray point sources detected in the XBootes survey. Using a Bayesian identification scheme, we successfully identified optical counterparts for 98% of the X-ray point sources. The optical colors suggest that the optically detected galaxies are a combination of z<1 massive early-type galaxies and bluer star-forming galaxies whose optical AGN emission is faint or obscured, whereas the majority of the optically detected point sources are likely quasars over a large redshift range. Our large area, X-ray bright, optically deep survey enables us to select a large sub-sample of sources (773) with high X-ray to optical flux ratios (f_x/f_o>10). These objects are likely high redshift and/or dust obscured AGN. These sources have generally harder X-ray spectra than sources with 0.1<f_x/f_o<10. Of the 73 X-ray sources with no optical counterpart in the NDWFS catalog, 47 are truly optically blank down to R~25.5 (the average 50% completeness limit of the NDWFS R-band catalogs). These sources are also likely to be high redshift and/or dust obscured AGN.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, ApJ accepted. Catalog can be found at: http://www.noao.edu/noao/noaodeep or ftp://archive.noao.edu/pub/catalogs/xbootes