The impact of a special school placement on self-perceptions of confidence and competence among prospective PE teachers

School-based placements are often used as a way of preparing prospective teachers for the demands of their future role. However, little is known about the impact of such situated learning experiences on prospective PE teachers’ confidence and competence. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first of its kind to explore prospective teachers’ views of, and experiences within, special schools in order to identify the experiential mechanisms that shape self-perceptions of competence and confidence when teaching pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in PE. Thirty-two final year undergraduate students participated in focus group interviews and were selected on the basis that they: (1) were studying a Special Educational Needs and Disability in PE undergraduate module; (2) aspired to be a PE teacher; and (3) had attended six half-days of placement in a special school. All focus group transcripts were subjected to open, axial and selective coding in order to identify themes and sub-themes. The themes that were constructed from the analysis were: impact of placement role on confidence and competence; impact of knowing pupils’ needs and capabilities; conceptualising confidence and perceptions of its development; and conceptualising competence and perceptions of its development. We use these themes to discuss the usefulness of special school-based placements for preparing aspiring teachers for their role as inclusive educators

All-sky LIGO Search for Periodic Gravitational Waves in the Early S5 Data

We report on an all-sky search with the LIGO detectors for periodic gravitational waves in the frequency range 50--1100 Hz and with the frequency's time derivative in the range -5.0E-9 Hz/s to zero. Data from the first eight months of the fifth LIGO science run (S5) have been used in this search, which is based on a semi-coherent method (PowerFlux) of summing strain power. Observing no evidence of periodic gravitational radiation, we report 95% confidence-level upper limits on radiation emitted by any unknown isolated rotating neutron stars within the search range. Strain limits below 1.E-24 are obtained over a 200-Hz band, and the sensitivity improvement over previous searches increases the spatial volume sampled by an average factor of about 100 over the entire search band. For a neutron star with nominal equatorial ellipticity of 1.0E-6, the search is sensitive to distances as great as 500 pc--a range that could encompass many undiscovered neutron stars, albeit only a tiny fraction of which would likely be rotating fast enough to be accessible to LIGO. This ellipticity is at the upper range thought to be sustainable by conventional neutron stars and well below the maximum sustainable by a strange quark star.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Search for Gravitational Wave Bursts from Soft Gamma Repeaters

We present the results of a LIGO search for short-duration gravitational waves (GWs) associated with Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR) bursts. This is the first search sensitive to neutron star f-modes, usually considered the most efficient GW emitting modes. We find no evidence of GWs associated with any SGR burst in a sample consisting of the 27 Dec. 2004 giant flare from SGR 1806-20 and 190 lesser events from SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 which occurred during the first year of LIGO's fifth science run. GW strain upper limits and model-dependent GW emission energy upper limits are estimated for individual bursts using a variety of simulated waveforms. The unprecedented sensitivity of the detectors allows us to set the most stringent limits on transient GW amplitudes published to date. We find upper limit estimates on the model-dependent isotropic GW emission energies (at a nominal distance of 10 kpc) between 3x10^45 and 9x10^52 erg depending on waveform type, detector antenna factors and noise characteristics at the time of the burst. These upper limits are within the theoretically predicted range of some SGR models.Comment: 6 pages, 1 Postscript figur

Astrophysically Triggered Searches for Gravitational Waves: Status and Prospects

In gravitational-wave detection, special emphasis is put onto searches that focus on cosmic events detected by other types of astrophysical observatories. The astrophysical triggers, e.g. from gamma-ray and X-ray satellites, optical telescopes and neutrino observatories, provide a trigger time for analyzing gravitational wave data coincident with the event. In certain cases the expected frequency range, source energetics, directional and progenitor information is also available. Beyond allowing the recognition of gravitational waveforms with amplitudes closer to the noise floor of the detector, these triggered searches should also lead to rich science results even before the onset of Advanced LIGO. In this paper we provide a broad review of LIGO's astrophysically triggered searches and the sources they target

Quantum state preparation and macroscopic entanglement in gravitational-wave detectors

Long-baseline laser-interferometer gravitational-wave detectors are operating at a factor of 10 (in amplitude) above the standard quantum limit (SQL) within a broad frequency band. Such a low classical noise budget has already allowed the creation of a controlled 2.7 kg macroscopic oscillator with an effective eigenfrequency of 150 Hz and an occupation number of 200. This result, along with the prospect for further improvements, heralds the new possibility of experimentally probing macroscopic quantum mechanics (MQM) - quantum mechanical behavior of objects in the realm of everyday experience - using gravitational-wave detectors. In this paper, we provide the mathematical foundation for the first step of a MQM experiment: the preparation of a macroscopic test mass into a nearly minimum-Heisenberg-limited Gaussian quantum state, which is possible if the interferometer's classical noise beats the SQL in a broad frequency band. Our formalism, based on Wiener filtering, allows a straightforward conversion from the classical noise budget of a laser interferometer, in terms of noise spectra, into the strategy for quantum state preparation, and the quality of the prepared state. Using this formalism, we consider how Gaussian entanglement can be built among two macroscopic test masses, and the performance of the planned Advanced LIGO interferometers in quantum-state preparation

First joint search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO and GEO600 data

We present the results of the first joint search for gravitational-wave bursts by the LIGO and GEO600 detectors. We search for bursts with characteristic central frequencies in the band 768 to 2048 Hz in the data acquired between the 22nd of February and the 23rd of March, 2005 (fourth LSC Science Run - S4). We discuss the inclusion of the GEO600 data in the Waveburst-CorrPower pipeline that first searches for coincident excess power events without taking into account differences in the antenna responses or strain sensitivities of the various detectors. We compare the performance of this pipeline to that of the coherent Waveburst pipeline based on the maximum likelihood statistic. This likelihood statistic is derived from a coherent sum of the detector data streams that takes into account the antenna patterns and sensitivities of the different detectors in the network. We find that the coherentWaveburst pipeline is sensitive to signals of amplitude 30 - 50% smaller than the Waveburst-CorrPower pipeline. We perform a search for gravitational-wave bursts using both pipelines and find no detection candidates in the S4 data set when all four instruments were operating stably.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figure

Buffered high charge spectrally-peaked proton beams in the relativistic-transparency regime

Spectrally-peaked proton beams of high charge (Ep » 8 MeV, DE » 4 MeV, N » 50 nC ) have been observed from the interaction of an intense laser (>1019 W cm−2) with ultrathin CH foils, as measured by spectrally-resolved full beam profiles. These beams are reproducibly generated for foil thicknesses 5–100 nm, and exhibit narrowing divergence with decreasing target thickness down to »8 for 5 nm. Simulations demonstrate that the narrow energy spread feature is a result of buffered acceleration of protons. The radiation pressure at the front of the target results in asymmetric sheath fields which permeate throughout the target, causing preferential forward acceleration. Due to their higher charge- to-mass ratio, the protons outrun a carbon plasma driven in the relativistic transparency regime

Astrophysically triggered searches for gravitational waves: status and prospects

In gravitational-wave detection, special emphasis is put onto searches that focus on cosmic events detected by other types of astrophysical observatories. The astrophysical triggers, e. g. from gamma-ray and x-ray satellites, optical telescopes and neutrino observatories, provide a trigger time for analyzing gravitational-wave data coincident with the event. In certain cases the expected frequency range, source energetics, directional and progenitor information are also available. Beyond allowing the recognition of gravitational waveforms with amplitudes closer to the noise floor of the detector, these triggered searches should also lead to rich science results even before the onset of Advanced LIGO. In this paper we provide a broad review of LIGO's astrophysically triggered searches and the sources they target

Maternal healthcare use by women with disabilities in Rajasthan, India: a secondary analysis of the Annual Health Survey

Abstract Background Women with disabilities face a number of barriers when accessing reproductive health services, including maternal healthcare. These include physical inaccessibility, high costs, transportation that is not accessible, negative attitudes from family and healthcare providers, and a societal belief people with disabilities shouldn’t be parents. While qualitative studies have uncovered these barriers, there is limited quantitative research to determine their effect on use of maternal health services. This study aims to analyze associations between disability and maternal healthcare use among married women in Rajasthan. Methods This study is a secondary analysis of the Indian Annual Heath Survey first wave data from 2011. The sample includes 141,983 women aged 15–49 who had given birth between 2007 and 2009. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between disability and use of antenatal, delivery, and postnatal care. Stratified models were created to analyze difference based on birth order of the pregnancy and whether the woman’s place of residence is rural or urban. Results The prevalence of disability was 1.23%. Attending at least three antenatal care visits was reported by 50.66% of the sample, skilled delivery use by 83.81%, and receiving postnatal care within 48 h of birth by 76.02%. In the regression model, women with disabilities were less likely to report attending the minimum antenatal care visits (OR = 0.84; CI: 0.76, 0.92). No association was found between disability and skilled delivery or postnatal care. Once the sample was stratified by birth order, women with disabilities reporting their first birth were more likely to report receiving postnatal care than women without disabilities (OR = 1.47; CI: 1.13, 1.91). Conclusion Additional research is needed to determine use of maternal healthcare among women with disabilities in India. Maternal services need to be assessed to determine their accessibility, especially regarding recent laws requiring accessibility