12,479 research outputs found
Connecting Mathematics and the Applied Science of Energy Conservation
To effectively teach science in the elementary classroom, pre-service K-8 teachers need a basic understanding of the underlying concepts of physics, which demand a strong foundation in mathematics. Unfortunately, the depth of mathematics understanding of prospective elementary teachers has been a growing and serious concern for several decades. To overcome this challenge, a two-pronged attack was used in this study. First. students in mathematics courses were coupled with physical science courses by linking registration to ensure co-requisites were taken. This alone improved passing rates. Secondly, an energy conservation project was introduced in both classes that intimately tied the theoretical mathematics base knowledge to problems in physical science, energy efficiency, and household economics. These connections made the mathematics highly relevant to the students and improved both their theoretical understanding and their grades. Together, the two approaches of tying mathematics to physical science and applying mathematical skills to solving energy efficiency problems have shown to be extremely effective at improving student performance. This five-year study not only exhibited record improvements in student performance, but also can be easily replicated at other institutions experiencing similar challenges in training pre-service elementary school teachers
A note on shell models for MHD Turbulence
We investigate the time evolution of two different (GOY-like) shell models
which have been recently proposed to describe the gross features of MHD
turbulence. We see that, even if they are formally of the same type sharing
with MHD equations quadratic couplings and similar conserved quantities,
fundamental differences exist which are related to the ideal invariants.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures.eps, to appear in Europhysics Letter
On the turbulent energy cascade in anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
The problem of the occurrence of an energy cascade for Alfv\'enic turbulence
in solar wind plasmas was hystorically addressed by using phenomenological
arguments based to the weakness of nonlinear interactions and the anisotropy of
the cascade in wave vectors space. Here, this paradox is reviewed through the
formal derivation of a Yaglom relation from anisotropic Magnetohydrodynamic
equation. The Yaglom relation involves a third-order moment calculated from
velocity and magnetic fields and involving both Els\"asser vector fields, and
is particularly useful to be used as far as spacecraft observations of
turbulence are concerned
Choreographies in Practice
Choreographic Programming is a development methodology for concurrent
software that guarantees correctness by construction. The key to this paradigm
is to disallow mismatched I/O operations in programs, called choreographies,
and then mechanically synthesise distributed implementations in terms of
standard process models via a mechanism known as EndPoint Projection (EPP).
Despite the promise of choreographic programming, there is still a lack of
practical evaluations that illustrate the applicability of choreographies to
concrete computational problems with standard concurrent solutions. In this
work, we explore the potential of choreographies by using Procedural
Choreographies (PC), a model that we recently proposed, to write distributed
algorithms for sorting (Quicksort), solving linear equations (Gaussian
elimination), and computing Fast Fourier Transform. We discuss the lessons
learned from this experiment, giving possible directions for the usage and
future improvements of choreography languages
Execution Models for Choreographies and Cryptoprotocols
A choreography describes a transaction in which several principals interact.
Since choreographies frequently describe business processes affecting
substantial assets, we need a security infrastructure in order to implement
them safely. As part of a line of work devoted to generating cryptoprotocols
from choreographies, we focus here on the execution models suited to the two
levels.
We give a strand-style semantics for choreographies, and propose a special
execution model in which choreography-level messages are faithfully delivered
exactly once. We adapt this model to handle multiparty protocols in which some
participants may be compromised.
At level of cryptoprotocols, we use the standard Dolev-Yao execution model,
with one alteration. Since many implementations use a "nonce cache" to discard
multiply delivered messages, we provide a semantics for at-most-once delivery
Integral group actions on symmetric spaces and discrete duality symmetries of supergravity theories
For a split, simply connected, semisimple Lie group of rank
and the maximal compact subgroup of , we give a method for computing
Iwasawa coordinates of using the Chevalley generators and the Steinberg
presentation. When is a scalar coset for a supergravity theory in
dimensions , we determine the action of the integral form
on . We give explicit results for the action of the
discrete --duality groups and on the
scalar cosets and
for type IIB supergravity
in ten dimensions and 11--dimensional supergravity in dimensions,
respectively. For the former, we use this to determine the discrete U--duality
transformations on the scalar sector in the Borel gauge and we describe the
discrete symmetries of the dyonic charge lattice. We determine the
spectrum--generating symmetry group for fundamental BPS solitons of type IIB
supergravity in dimensions at the classical level and we propose an
analog of this symmetry at the quantum level. We indicate how our methods can
be used to study the orbits of discrete U--duality groups in general
Characterization of disturbance sources for LISA: torsion pendulum results
A torsion pendulum allows ground-based investigation of the purity of
free-fall for the LISA test masses inside their capacitive position sensor.
This paper presents recent improvements in our torsion pendulum facility that
have both increased the pendulum sensitivity and allowed detailed
characterization of several important sources of acceleration noise for the
LISA test masses. We discuss here an improved upper limit on random force noise
originating in the sensor. Additionally, we present new measurement techniques
and preliminary results for characterizing the forces caused by the sensor's
residual electrostatic fields, dielectric losses, residual spring-like
coupling, and temperature gradients.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication Classical and Quantum
Gravit
Study of light-nuclei in cosmic rays with the PAMELA experiment: Preliminary results
An important issue for the long-duration satellite mission PAMELA, in orbit from June 2006, is the determination of fluxes and secondary-to-primary ratios for nuclei up to oxygen in the energy range 200MeV/n–150GeV/n. The study of the light-nuclei component of the cosmic radiation is strictly connected to a better understanding of the propagation properties, which has great importance for the study of signatures of new physics in CRs. In particular, cosmic rays of primary origin such as carbon and oxygen may interact with the interstellar medium to produce secondary spallogenic fragments such as lithium, beryllium and boron.
The measured ratio of secondary-to-primary cosmic rays can be used to compute the mean amount of interstellar matter that cosmic rays have encountered before reaching the Earth; moreover, the shape of this ratios as a function of energy is seriously modified by changes in the propagation coefficients. Some results about the observation capability of the instrument for nuclei and a preliminary estimation
of secondary-to-primary ratios will be presented in this work
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