9,748 research outputs found
Becoming a teacher: conceptual and practice development in the learning and skills sector
Drawing on a mixed-methods study of in-service learning and skills sector (LSS) trainees, comprising beginning- and end-of-year surveys and six longitudinal case studies together with literature on trainees’ development in the LSS, schools and higher education sectors, conceptual and practice development continua are proposed. Conceptions become more multi-dimensional and increasingly link teaching and learning whilst initial concern with the practicalities of teaching is followed by recognition of learners’ needs. Next, greater emphasis is placed on learner autonomy and catering for individuals’ needs and finally assessment and evaluation is used systematically to shape practice. The continua offer an understanding of the subtleties and complexities of trainee development allowing
for different starting and end points and accommodating varied work contexts. I argue that this provides a more adequate basis for the development of initial teacher education (ITE) than the prescriptive approach embedded within recent LSS ITE policy reforms
Burial and seed survival in Brassica napus subsp. oleifera and Sinapis arvensis including a comparison of transgenic and non-transgenic lines of the crop
The creation of transgenic plants through genetic engineering has focused interest on how the fitness of a plant species may be altered by small changes in its genome. This study concentrates on a key component of fitness: persistence of seeds overwinter. Seeds of three lines of oilseed rape (Brassica napus subsp. oleifera DC Metzger) and of charlock (Sinapis arvensis L.) were buried in nylon mesh bags at two depths in four habitats in each of three geographically separated sites: Cornwall, Berkshire and Sutherland. Seeds were recovered after 12 and 24 months. Charlock exhibited much greater seed survival (average 60 per cent surviving the first year and 32.5 per cent surviving the second year) than oilseed rape (1.5 per cent surviving the first year and 0.2 per cent surviving the second) at all sites. Charlock showed higher survival at 15 cm burial than 2 cm burial at certain sites, but oilseed rape showed no depth effect. Different genetic lines of oilseed rape displayed different rates of seed survival; non-transgenic rape showed greater survival (2 per cent) than the two transgenic lines, one developed for tolerance to the antibiotic kanamycin (0.3 per cent) and one for tolerance to both kanamycin and the herbicide glufosinate (0.25 per cent). The absolute and relative performances of the different genetic lines of oilseed rape were context specific, illustrating the need to test hypotheses in a wide range of ecological settings
Turbulence, Complexity, and Solar Flares
The issue of predicting solar flares is one of the most fundamental in
physics, addressing issues of plasma physics, high-energy physics, and
modelling of complex systems. It also poses societal consequences, with our
ever-increasing need for accurate space weather forecasts. Solar flares arise
naturally as a competition between an input (flux emergence and rearrangement)
in the photosphere and an output (electrical current build up and resistive
dissipation) in the corona. Although initially localised, this redistribution
affects neighbouring regions and an avalanche occurs resulting in large scale
eruptions of plasma, particles, and magnetic field. As flares are powered from
the stressed field rooted in the photosphere, a study of the photospheric
magnetic complexity can be used to both predict activity and understand the
physics of the magnetic field. The magnetic energy spectrum and multifractal
spectrum are highlighted as two possible approaches to this.Comment: 2 figure
Supersymmetry of Noncompact MQCD-like Membrane Instantons and Heat Kernel Asymptotics
We perform a heat kernel asymptotics analysis of the nonperturbative
superpotential obtained from wrapping of an M2-brane around a supersymmetric
noncompact three-fold embedded in a (noncompact) G_2-manifold as obtained in
[1], the three-fold being the one relevant to domain walls in Witten's MQCD
[2], in the limit of small "zeta", a complex constant that appears in the
Riemann surfaces relevant to defining the boundary conditions for the domain
wall in MQCD. The MQCD-like configuration is interpretable, for small but
non-zero zeta as a noncompact/"large" open membrane instanton, and for
vanishing zeta, as the type IIA D0-brane (for vanishing M-theory cicle radius).
We find that the eta-function Seeley de-Witt coefficients vanish, and we get a
perfect match between the zeta-function Seeley de-Witt coefficients (up to
terms quadratic in zeta) between the Dirac-type operator and one of the two
Laplace-type operators figuring in the superpotential. This is an extremely
strong signature of residual supersymmetry for the nonperturbative
configurations in M-theory considered in this work.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX; v3: several clarifying remarks added, to appear in
JHE
Unfolding Orthogonal Polyhedra with Quadratic Refinement: The Delta-Unfolding Algorithm
We show that every orthogonal polyhedron homeomorphic to a sphere can be
unfolded without overlap while using only polynomially many (orthogonal) cuts.
By contrast, the best previous such result used exponentially many cuts. More
precisely, given an orthogonal polyhedron with n vertices, the algorithm cuts
the polyhedron only where it is met by the grid of coordinate planes passing
through the vertices, together with Theta(n^2) additional coordinate planes
between every two such grid planes.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure
A Note on Fluxes and Superpotentials in M-theory Compactifications on Manifolds of G_2 Holonomy
We consider the breaking of N=1 supersymmetry by non-zero G-flux when
M-theory is compactified on a smooth manifold X of G_2 holonomy. Gukov has
proposed a superpotential W to describe this breaking in the low-energy
effective theory. We check this proposal by comparing the bosonic potential
implied by W with the corresponding potential deduced from the
eleven-dimensional supergravity action. One interesting aspect of this check is
that, though W depends explicitly only on G-flux supported on X, W also
describes the breaking of supersymmetry by G-flux transverse to X.Comment: 15 pages, harvmac, v2: reference adde
-Strands
A -strand is a map for a Lie
group that follows from Hamilton's principle for a certain class of
-invariant Lagrangians. The SO(3)-strand is the -strand version of the
rigid body equation and it may be regarded physically as a continuous spin
chain. Here, -strand dynamics for ellipsoidal rotations is derived as
an Euler-Poincar\'e system for a certain class of variations and recast as a
Lie-Poisson system for coadjoint flow with the same Hamiltonian structure as
for a perfect complex fluid. For a special Hamiltonian, the -strand is
mapped into a completely integrable generalization of the classical chiral
model for the SO(3)-strand. Analogous results are obtained for the
-strand. The -strand is the -strand version of the
Bloch-Iserles ordinary differential equation, whose solutions exhibit dynamical
sorting. Numerical solutions show nonlinear interactions of coherent wave-like
solutions in both cases. -strand equations on the
diffeomorphism group are also introduced and shown
to admit solutions with singular support (e.g., peakons).Comment: 35 pages, 5 figures, 3rd version. To appear in J Nonlin Sc
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On the Interface Between LENS® Deposited Stainless Steel 304L Repair Geometry and Cast or Machined Components
Laser Engineered Net Shaping™ (LENS®) is being evaluated for use as a metal component
repair/modification process. A component of the evaluation is to better understand the characteristics of
the interface between LENS deposited material and the substrate on which it is deposited. A processing
and metallurgical evaluation was made on LENS processed material fabricated for component
qualification tests. A process parameter evaluation was used to determine optimum build parameters
and these parameters were used in the fabrication of tensile test specimens to study the characteristics of
the interface between LENS deposited material and several types of substrates. Analyses of the
interface included mechanical properties, microstructure, and metallurgical integrity. Test samples
were determined for a variety of geometric configurations associated with interfaces between LENS
deposited material and both wrought base material or previously deposited LENS material. Thirteen
different interface configurations were fabricated for evaluation representing a spectrum of deposition
conditions from complete part build, to hybrid substrate-LENS builds, to repair builds for damaged or
re-designed housings. Good mechanical properties and full density were observed for all configurations.
When tested to failure, fracture occurred by ductile microvoid coalescence. The repair and hybrid
interfaces showed the same metallurgical integrity as, and had properties similar to, monolithic LENS
deposits.Mechanical Engineerin
Practical, reliable and inexpensive assay of lycopene in tomato products based on the combined use of light emitting diode (LED) and the optothermal window
Light emitting diode (LED) combined with the concept of optothermal window (OW) is proposed as a new approach (LED-OW) to detect lycopene in a wide range of tomato-based products (tomato juice, tomato ketchup, tomato passata and tomato puree). Phytonutrient lycopene is a dominant antioxidant in these products while beta-carotene is present in significantly lower quantities. Therefore for all practical reasons the interfering effect of beta-carotene at 502 nm analytical wavelength can be neglected. The LED-OW method is low-cost and simple, yet accurate and precise. The major attributes of the new method are its rapid speed of response and the fact that no preparation whatsoever of the sample is needed before the analysis. The lycopene found in tomato products studied here varies from 8 mg/100 g to 60 mg/100 g fresh product. Results obtained by LED-OW method were compared to the outcome of conventional, time consuming spectrophotometric methods and the correlation was very good (R = 0.98). Precision of the LED-OW instrumental setup ranged from 0.5 to 7.4%; the RSD achieved for lycopene-richest samples (= 40 mg/100 g) did not exceed 1.7%. Repeatability of analysis by LED-OW was found to vary between 0.7 and 7.1%
Type IIA Orientifold Limit of M-Theory on Compact Joyce 8-Manifold of Spin(7)-Holonomy
We show that M-theory compactified on a compact Joyce 8-manifold of
-holonomy, which yields an effective theory in with = 1
supersymmetry, admits at some special points in it moduli space a description
in terms of type IIA theory on an orientifold of compact Joyce 7-manifold of
-holonomy. We find the evidence in favour of this duality by computing the
massless spectra on both M-thory side and type IIA side. For the latter, we
compute the massless spectra by going to the orbifold limit of the Joyce
7-manifold.Comment: 26 pages, 2 eps figures, Latex file, two references and one footnote
added, corrected some typo
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