748 research outputs found
Secondary literacy across the curriculum: Challenges and possibilities
This paper discusses the challenges and possibilities attendant upon successfully implementing literacy across the curriculum initiatives – or ‘school language policies’ as they have come to be known - particularly at the secondary or high school level. It provides a theoretical background to these issues, exploring previous academic discussions of school language policies, and highlights key areas of concern as well as opportunity with respect to school implementation of such policies. As such, it provides a necessary conceptual background to the subsequent papers in this special issue, which focus upon the Secondary Schools’ Literacy Initiative (SSLI) – a New Zealand funded programme that aims to establish cross-curricular language and literacy policies in secondary schools
A Comparison of the Ovulation Method With the CUE Ovulation Predictor in Determining the Fertile Period
The purpose of this study was to compare the CUE Ovulation Predictor with the ovulation method in determining the fertile period. Eleven regularly ovulating women measured their salivary and vaginal electrical resistance (ER) with the CUE, observed their cervical-vaginal mucus, and measured their urine for a luteinizing hormone (LH) surge on a daily basis. Data from 21 menstrual cycles showed no statistical difference (T= 0.33, p= 0.63) between the CUE fertile period, which ranged from 5 to 10 days (mean = 6.7 days, SD = 1.6), and the fertile period of the ovulation method, which ranged from 4 to 9 days (mean = 6.5 days, SD = 2.0). The CUE has potential as an adjunctive device in the learning and use of natural family planning methods
Deformation of a nearly hemispherical conducting drop due to an electric field: theory and experiment
We consider, both theoretically and experimentally, the deformation due to an electric field of a pinned nearly-hemispherical static sessile drop of an ionic fluid with a high conductivity resting on the lower substrate of a parallel plate capacitor. Using both numerical and asymptotic approaches we find solutions to the coupled electrostatic and augmented Young–Laplace equations which agree very well with the experimental results. Our asymptotic solution for the drop interface extends previous work in two ways, namely to drops that have zero-field contact angles that are not exactly π/2 and to higher order in the applied electric field, and provides useful predictive equations for the changes in the height, contact angle and pressure as functions of the zero-field contact angle, drop radius, surface tension and applied electric field. The asymptotic solution requires some numerical computations, and so a surprisingly accurate approximate analytical asymptotic solution is also obtained
Transport properties of heterogeneous materials derived from Gaussian random fields: Bounds and Simulation
We investigate the effective conductivity () of a class of
amorphous media defined by the level-cut of a Gaussian random field. The three
point solid-solid correlation function is derived and utilised in the
evaluation of the Beran-Milton bounds. Simulations are used to calculate
for a variety of fields and volume fractions at several different
conductivity contrasts. Relatively large differences in are observed
between the Gaussian media and the identical overlapping sphere model used
previously as a `model' amorphous medium. In contrast shows little
variability between different Gaussian media.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure
Massive relativistic particle model with spin from free two-twistor dynamics and its quantization
We consider a relativistic particle model in an enlarged relativistic phase
space M^{18} = (X_\mu, P_\mu, \eta_\alpha, \oeta_\dalpha, \sigma_\alpha,
\osigma_\dalpha, e, \phi), which is derived from the free two-twistor dynamics.
The spin sector variables (\eta_\alpha, \oeta_\dalpha, \sigma_\alpha,\
osigma_\dalpha) satisfy two second class constraints and account for the
relativistic spin structure, and the pair (e,\phi) describes the electric
charge sector. After introducing the Liouville one-form on M^{18}, derived by a
non-linear transformation of the canonical Liouville one-form on the
two-twistor space, we analyze the dynamics described by the first and second
class constraints. We use a composite orthogonal basis in four-momentum space
to obtain the scalars defining the invariant spin projections. The
first-quantized theory provides a consistent set of wave equations, determining
the mass, spin, invariant spin projection and electric charge of the
relativistic particle. The wavefunction provides a generating functional for
free, massive higher spin fields.Comment: FTUV-05-0919, IFIC-05-46, IFT UWr 0110/05. Plain latex file, no
macros, 22 pages. A comment and references added. To appear in PRD1
Thermally generated vortices, gauge invariance and electron spectral function in the pseudo-gap regime
Starting from classical vortex fluctuation picture, we study the single
electron properties in the pseudogap regime. We show that it is the gauge
invariant Green function of spinon which is directly related to ARPES data in
the pseudogap regime instead of the non-gauge invariant one. We find that the
random gauge field from the thermally generated vortices completely destroys
the coherent spinon motion and leads to excitations pertinent to non-Fermi
liquid behaviors. The Energy Distribution Curves (EDC) show broad peaks, while
the Momentum Distribution Curve (MDC) show sharp peaks with Lorenz form. The
local density of state at zero energy scales as the inverse of
Kosterlize-Thouless length. These results are qualitatively consistent with the
ARPES data in the pseudo-gap regime.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 22700
Big, Fast Vortices in the d-RVB theory of High Temperature Superconductivity
The effect of proximity to a Mott insulating phase on the superflow
properties of a d-wave superconductor is studied using the slave boson-U(1)
gauge theory model. The model has two limits corresponding to superconductivity
emerging either out of a 'renormalized fermi liquid' or out of a
non-fermi-liquid regime. Three crucial physical parameters are identified: the
size of the vortex \textit{as determined from the supercurrent it induces;} the
coupling of the superflow to the quasiparticles and the 'nondissipative time
derivative' term. As the Mott phase is approached, the core size as defined
from the supercurrent diverges, the coupling between superflow and
quasiparticles vanishes, and the magnitude of the nondissipative time
derivative dramatically increases. The dissipation due to a moving vortex is
found to vary as the third power of the doping. The upper critical field and
the size of the critical regime in which paraconductivity may be observed are
estimated, and found to be controlled by the supercurrent length scale
Quantifying loopy network architectures
Biology presents many examples of planar distribution and structural networks
having dense sets of closed loops. An archetype of this form of network
organization is the vasculature of dicotyledonous leaves, which showcases a
hierarchically-nested architecture containing closed loops at many different
levels. Although a number of methods have been proposed to measure aspects of
the structure of such networks, a robust metric to quantify their hierarchical
organization is still lacking. We present an algorithmic framework, the
hierarchical loop decomposition, that allows mapping loopy networks to binary
trees, preserving in the connectivity of the trees the architecture of the
original graph. We apply this framework to investigate computer generated
graphs, such as artificial models and optimal distribution networks, as well as
natural graphs extracted from digitized images of dicotyledonous leaves and
vasculature of rat cerebral neocortex. We calculate various metrics based on
the Asymmetry, the cumulative size distribution and the Strahler bifurcation
ratios of the corresponding trees and discuss the relationship of these
quantities to the architectural organization of the original graphs. This
algorithmic framework decouples the geometric information (exact location of
edges and nodes) from the metric topology (connectivity and edge weight) and it
ultimately allows us to perform a quantitative statistical comparison between
predictions of theoretical models and naturally occurring loopy graphs.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures. During preparation of this manuscript the
authors became aware of the work of Mileyko at al., concurrently submitted
for publicatio
Charge Ordering Fluctuation and Optical Pseudogap in LaCaMnO
Optical spectroscopy was used to investigate the optical gap (2) due
to charge ordering (CO) and related pseudogap developments with x and
temperature (T) in LaCaMnO (0.48 <= x <= 0.67).
Surprisingly, we found 2/k_{B}T_{CO} is as large as 30 for x ~0.5, and
decreases rapidly with increasing x. Simultaneously, the optical pseudogap,
possibly starting from T^* far above T_{CO} becomes drastically enhanced near
x=0.5, producing non-BCS T-dependence of 2 with the large magnitude
far above T_{CO}, and systematic increase of T^* for x~0.5. These results
unequivocally indicate systematically-enhanced CO correlation when x approaches
0.5 even though T_{CO} decreases.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures embedded, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Molecular analysis distinguishes metastatic disease from second cancers in patients with retinoblastoma
The pediatric ocular tumor retinoblastoma readily metastasizes, but these lesions can masquerade as histologically similar pediatric small round blue cell tumors. Since 98% of retinoblastomas have RB1 mutations and a characteristic genomic copy number “signature”, genetic analysis is an appealing adjunct to histopathology to distinguish retinoblastoma metastasis from second primary cancer in retinoblastoma patients. Here, we describe such an approach in two retinoblastoma cases. In patient one, allele-specific (AS)-PCR for a somatic nonsense mutation confirmed that a temple mass was metastatic retinoblastoma. In a second patient, a rib mass shared somatic copy number gains and losses with the primary tumor. For definitive diagnosis, however, an RB1 mutation was needed, but heterozygous promoter→exon 11 deletion was the only RB1 mutation detected in the primary tumor. We used a novel application of inverse PCR to identify the deletion breakpoint. Subsequently, AS-PCR designed for the breakpoint confirmed that the rib mass was metastatic retinoblastoma. These cases demonstrate that personalized molecular testing can confirm retinoblastoma metastases and rule out a second primary cancer, thereby helping to direct the clinical management
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