Arousing Public Attention on Sea Level Rise in New Zealand through Art-Science Collaboration

In New Zealand, climate scientists predict that climate change-induced sea level rise will have an earlier and greater impact on coastal communities than previously anticipated. In Auckland, the “City of Sails,” Aucklanders’ prize the opportunity to sail on the ocean and live near the beach. However, in 2019 Auckland Council released information that by 2060, a projected increase of 50 cm sea level rise would inundate the homes of 43,000 citizens. If citizens are to safeguard their lifestyles, they need to make effective decisions about how and where they choose to live. While artists are not often qualified to disseminate scientific knowledge, they are able to offer artistic comprehension through aesthetic intelligence, experientiality, and the creation of mental imagery. Building on this position, this chapter explores how an art-science exhibition, Blue Radius, deployed a range of sensorial, emotional, and scientific perspectives to imaginatively engage citizens with the phenomena of climate change-induced sea level rise and present relevant scientific information to assist citizens develop informed decision-making skills

Perceptions of Physician Assistant Students’ Readiness with System-Based vs. Problem-Based Physical Diagnosis Curriculum

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify students’ perceptions of the curriculum in two different cohorts who received two different delivery styles (system-based or problem-based) of physical diagnosis curriculum to determine if significant differences were present, and to identify how each cohort performed on their clinical experiences (CEs). Methods: One-hundred and sixteen students at one physician assistant (PA) program from two cohorts of students were surveyed using a true/false survey (analyzed by chi-square) regarding their perceptions of their preparedness for clinical rotations with regard to the ability to perform physical examinations. Clinical preceptor evaluations were also analyzed for both cohorts with respect to competence in physical examination skills as rated by preceptors on a scale of 1 to 3. Results: Each cohort related that they were satisfied with their preparation regardless of delivery format, with no tendencies toward respective cohorts indicating they should have received the alternate delivery format. No significant differences were found in the students’ perceptions of their ability to perform a physical examination on CEs between the cohorts or between the groups’ performances on their CEs. Conclusions: System-based and problem-based formats were found to have merit and similar outcomes and thus can both be deemed effective teaching methods for teaching physical diagnosis curriculum

Perceptions of Physician Assistant Students ’ Readiness with System-Based vs. Problem-Based Physical Diagnosis Curriculum

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify students’ perceptions of the curriculum in two different cohorts who received two different delivery styles (system-based or problem-based) of physical diagnosis curriculum to determine if significant differences were present, and to identify how each cohort performed on their clinical experiences (CEs). Methods: One-hundred and sixteen students at one physician assistant (PA) program from two cohorts of students were surveyed using a true/false survey (analyzed by chi-square) regarding their perceptions of their preparedness for clinical rotations with regard to the ability to perform physical examinations. Clinical preceptor evaluations were also analyzed for both cohorts with respect to competence in physical examination skills as rated by preceptors on a scale of 1 to 3. Results: Each cohort related that they were satisfied with their preparation regardless of delivery format, with no tendencies toward respective cohorts indicating they should have received the alternate delivery format. No significant differences were found in the students’ perceptions of their ability to perform a physical examination on CEs between the cohorts or between the groups’ performances on their CEs. Conclusions: System-based and problem-based formats were found to have merit and similar outcomes and thus can both be deemed effective teaching methods for teaching physical diagnosis curriculum

Search for R-Parity Violating Decays of Scalar Fermions at LEP

A search for pair-produced scalar fermions under the assumption that R-parity is not conserved has been performed using data collected with the OPAL detector at LEP. The data samples analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 610 pb-1 collected at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) 189-209 GeV. An important consequence of R-parity violation is that the lightest supersymmetric particle is expected to be unstable. Searches of R-parity violating decays of charged sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks have been performed under the assumptions that the lightest supersymmetric particle decays promptly and that only one of the R-parity violating couplings is dominant for each of the decay modes considered. Such processes would yield final states consisting of leptons, jets, or both with or without missing energy. No significant single-like excess of events has been observed with respect to the Standard Model expectations. Limits on the production cross- section of scalar fermions in R-parity violating scenarios are obtained. Constraints on the supersymmetric particle masses are also presented in an R-parity violating framework analogous to the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.Comment: 51 pages, 24 figures, Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Measurement of the Hadronic Photon Structure Function F_2^gamma at LEP2

The hadronic structure function of the photon F_2^gamma is measured as a function of Bjorken x and of the factorisation scale Q^2 using data taken by the OPAL detector at LEP. Previous OPAL measurements of the x dependence of F_2^gamma are extended to an average Q^2 of 767 GeV^2. The Q^2 evolution of F_2^gamma is studied for average Q^2 between 11.9 and 1051 GeV^2. As predicted by QCD, the data show positive scaling violations in F_2^gamma. Several parameterisations of F_2^gamma are in agreement with the measurements whereas the quark-parton model prediction fails to describe the data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of Photon 2001, Ascona, Switzerlan

Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson with the OPAL Detector at LEP

This paper summarises the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV performed by the OPAL Collaboration at LEP. The consistency of the data with the background hypothesis and various Higgs boson mass hypotheses is examined. No indication of a signal is found in the data and a lower bound of 112.7GeV/C^2 is obtained on the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson at the 95% CL.Comment: 51 pages, 21 figure