Engaging students in bioscience research to improve their learning experience

Combining teaching and research is the definitive principle of ‘research-informed teaching’ (RIT) (Healey, 2005). RIT is pivotal for improving the student learning experience. All undergraduate students within the School of Science and Engineering, Teesside University (TU), can become RIT co-creators via their curricula-based Level 5 project proposal module and Level 6 research project. This case study illustrates how the authors used complementary, co-curricula methods to enhance student engagement with bioscience research utilising co-designed research projects and publication preparation. The success of student involvement in these initiatives was measured against six key personal attributes (Adaptable, Articulate, Aspiring, Creative, Critical, Confident), questionnaire responses from ten respondents, and a summary of tangible research outputs. An evaluation of staff involvement was made with semi-structured interviews. Overall, the research-led, partnership approach resulted in increased student motivation, aspiration and confidence in their further learning and employment

Thermal Evolution and Light Curves of Young Bare Strange Stars

The cooling of a young bare strange star is studied numerically by solving the equations of energy conservation and heat transport for both normal and superconducting strange quark matter inside the star. We show that the thermal luminosity from the strange star surface, due to both photon emission and e+e- pair production, may be orders of magnitude higher than the Eddington limit, for about one day for normal quark matter but possibly for up to a hundred years for superconducting quark matter, while the maximum of the photon spectrum is in hard X-rays with a mean energy of ~ 100 keV or even more. This differs both qualitatively and quantitatively from the photon emission from young neutron stars and provides a definite observational signature for bare strange stars. It is shown that the energy gap of superconducting strange quark matter may be estimated from the light curves if it is in the range from ~ 0.5 MeV to a few MeV.Comment: Ref [10] added and abstract shortened. 4 pages, 3 figures, revtex4. To be published in Phys. Rev. Letter

The Spin(7)Spin(7)-structures on complex line bundles and explicit Riemannian metrics with SU(4)-holonomy

We completely explore the system of ODE's which is equivalent to the existence of a parallel $Spin(7)$-structure on the cone over a 7-dimensional 3-Sasakian manifold. The one-dimensional family of solutions of this system is constructed. The solutions of this family correspond to metrics with holonomy SU(4) which generalize the Calabi metrics.Comment: 11 page

Are strange stars distinguishable from neutron stars by their cooling behaviour?

The general statement that strange stars cool more rapidly than neutron stars is investigated in greater detail. It is found that the direct Urca process could be forbidden not only in neutron stars but also in strange stars. If so, strange stars would be slowly cooling and their surface temperatures would be more or less indistinguishable from those of slowly cooling neutron stars. The case of enhanced cooling is reinvestigated as well. It is found that strange stars cool significantly more rapidly than neutron stars within the first $\sim 30$ years after birth. This feature could become particularly interesting if continued observation of SN 1987A would reveal the temperature of the possibly existing pulsar at its centre.Comment: 10 pages, 3 ps-figures, to appear in the proceedings of the International Symposium on ''Strangeness in Quark Matter 1997``, April 14--18, Thera (Santorini), Hella

Entanglement, recoherence and information flow in an accelerated detector - quantum field system: Implications for black hole information issue

We study an exactly solvable model where an uniformly accelerated detector is linearly coupled to a massless scalar field initially in the Minkowski vacuum. Using the exact correlation functions we show that as soon as the coupling is switched on one can see information flowing from the detector to the field and propagating with the radiation into null infinity. By expressing the reduced density matrix of the detector in terms of the two-point functions, we calculate the purity function in the detector and study the evolution of quantum entanglement between the detector and the field. Only in the ultraweak coupling regime could some degree of recoherence in the detector appear at late times, but never in full restoration. We explicitly show that under the most general conditions the detector never recovers its quantum coherence and the entanglement between the detector and the field remains large at late times. To the extent this model can be used as an analog to the system of a black hole interacting with a quantum field, our result seems to suggest in the prevalent non-Markovian regime, assuming unitarity for the combined system, that black hole information is not lost but transferred to the quantum field degrees of freedom. Our combined system will evolve into a highly entangled state between a remnant of large area (in Bekenstein's black hole atom analog) without any information of its initial state, and the quantum field, now imbued with complex information content not-so-easily retrievable by a local observer.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures; minor change

Modern compact star observations and the quark matter equation of state

We present a hybrid equation of state (EoS) for dense matter that satisfies phenomenological constraints from modern compact star (CS) observations which indicate high maximum masses (M = 2 M_sun) and large radii (R> 12 km). The corresponding isospin symmetric EoS is consistent with flow data analyses of heavy-ion collisions and a deconfinement transition at approx. 0.55 fm^{-3}. The quark matter phase is described by a 3-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model that accounts for scalar diquark condensation and vector meson interactions while the nuclear matter phase is obtained within the Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (DBHF) approach using the Bonn-A potential. We demonstrate that both pure neutron stars and neutron stars with quark matter cores (QCSs) are consistent with modern CS observations. Hybrid star configurations with a CFL quark core are unstable.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures; published version, important note added in proo

Bell Correlations and the Common Future

Reichenbach's principle states that in a causal structure, correlations of classical information can stem from a common cause in the common past or a direct influence from one of the events in correlation to the other. The difficulty of explaining Bell correlations through a mechanism in that spirit can be read as questioning either the principle or even its basis: causality. In the former case, the principle can be replaced by its quantum version, accepting as a common cause an entangled state, leaving the phenomenon as mysterious as ever on the classical level (on which, after all, it occurs). If, more radically, the causal structure is questioned in principle, closed space-time curves may become possible that, as is argued in the present note, can give rise to non-local correlations if to-be-correlated pieces of classical information meet in the common future --- which they need to if the correlation is to be detected in the first place. The result is a view resembling Brassard and Raymond-Robichaud's parallel-lives variant of Hermann's and Everett's relative-state formalism, avoiding "multiple realities."Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

The Specific Heat of Normal, Degenerate Quark Matter: Non-Fermi Liquid Corrections

In normal degenerate quark matter, the exchange of dynamically screened transverse gluons introduces infrared divergences in the quark self-energies that lead to the breakdown of the Fermi liquid description. If the core of neutron stars are composed of quark matter with a normal component, cooling by direct quark Urca processes may be modified by non-Fermi liquid corrections. We find that while the quasiparticle density of states is finite and non-zero at the Fermi surface, its frequency derivative diverges and results in non-Fermi liquid corrections to the specific heat of the normal, degenerate component of quark matter. We study these non-perturbative non-Fermi liquid corrections to the specific heat and the temperature dependence of the chemical potential and show that these lead to a reduction of the specific heat.Comment: new discussion, updated references, accepted in PR

Eliciting a predatory response in the eastern corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus) using live and inanimate sensory stimuli: implications for managing invasive populations

North America's Eastern corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus) has been introduced to several islands throughout the Caribbean and Australasia where it poses a significant threat to native wildlife. Invasive snake control programs often involve trapping with live bait, a practice that, as well as being costly and labour intensive, raises welfare and ethical concerns. This study assessed corn snake response to live and inanimate sensory stimuli in an attempt to inform possible future trapping of the species and the development of alternative trap lures. We exposed nine individuals to sensory cues in the form of odour, visual, vibration and combined stimuli and measured the response (rate of tongue-flick [RTF]). RTF was significantly higher in odour and combined cues treatments, and there was no significant difference in RTF between live and inanimate cues during odour treatments. Our findings suggest chemical cues are of primary importance in initiating predation and that an inanimate odour stimulus, absent of simultaneous visual and vibratory cues, is a potential low-cost alternative trap lure for the control of invasive corn snake populations

Theoretical study of the insulating oxides and nitrides: SiO2, GeO2, Al2O3, Si3N4, and Ge3N4

An extensive theoretical study is performed for wide bandgap crystalline oxides and nitrides, namely, SiO_{2}, GeO_{2}, Al_{2}O_{3}, Si_{3}N_{4}, and Ge_{3}N_{4}. Their important polymorphs are considered which are for SiO_{2}: $\alpha$-quartz, $\alpha$- and $\beta$-cristobalite and stishovite, for GeO_{2}: $\alpha$-quartz, and rutile, for Al_{2}O_{3}: $\alpha$-phase, for Si_{3}N_{4} and Ge_{3}N_{4}: $\alpha$- and $\beta$-phases. This work constitutes a comprehensive account of both electronic structure and the elastic properties of these important insulating oxides and nitrides obtained with high accuracy based on density functional theory within the local density approximation. Two different norm-conserving \textit{ab initio} pseudopotentials have been tested which agree in all respects with the only exception arising for the elastic properties of rutile GeO_{2}. The agreement with experimental values, when available, are seen to be highly satisfactory. The uniformity and the well convergence of this approach enables an unbiased assessment of important physical parameters within each material and among different insulating oxide and nitrides. The computed static electric susceptibilities are observed to display a strong correlation with their mass densities. There is a marked discrepancy between the considered oxides and nitrides with the latter having sudden increase of density of states away from the respective band edges. This is expected to give rise to excessive carrier scattering which can practically preclude bulk impact ionization process in Si_{3}N_{4} and Ge_{3}N_{4}.Comment: Published version, 10 pages, 8 figure