1,802 research outputs found
Re-positioning SoTL toward the T-shaped Community
Amongst a range of changes that have taken place within tertiary education, perhaps the most revolutionary has been a shift to student-centred approaches focused on life-long learning. Accompanying this approach to holistic higher education (HE) has been a growing interest in, and understanding of, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). SoTL has, at its core, a deep concern with student learning and is therefore well-aligned with higher education’s renewed focus on its students. In this conceptual paper, we examine the impact of the T-shaped person which many tertiary institutions are operationalizing to inform and connect the development of students’ deep disciplinary knowledge with non-academic and employment readiness skills (such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and critical thinking). Importantly, we argue for a re-positioning of SoTL to complement and support this model, with SoTL as both the fulcrum and the fluid, multiple threads of discourse that are intricately entwined around the structure of the T-shaped model. We encourage our colleagues to strive to be T-shaped practitioners and we cast a vision of a T-shaped community. Here, all stakeholders within HE connect both their academic knowledge and holistic skills in collaborative ways to produce learners who flourish in modern society. The SoTL community plays a pivotal role in achieving this vision and is well-positioned to expand the current notion of SoTL toward a more holistic, interconnected, central role in HE
X-ray photoemission spectroscopy determination of the InN/yttria stabilized cubic-zirconia valence band offset
The valence band offset of wurtzite InN(0001)/yttria stabilized cubic-zirconia (YSZ)(111) heterojunctions is determined by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy to be 1.19±0.17 eV giving a conduction band offset of 3.06±0.20 eV. Consequently, a type-I heterojunction forms between InN and YSZ in the straddling arrangement. The low lattice mismatch and high band offsets suggest potential for use of YSZ as a gate dielectric in high-frequency InN-based electronic devices
Crystal Structure and Magnetism of the Linear-Chain Copper Oxides Sr5Pb3-xBixCuO12
The title quasi-1D copper oxides (0=< x =<0.4) were investigated by neutron
diffraction and magnetic susceptibility studies. Polyhedral CuO4 units in the
compounds were found to comprise linear-chains at inter-chain distance of
approximately 10 A. The parent chain compound (x = 0), however, shows less
anisotropic magnetic behavior above 2 K, although it is of substantially
antiferromagnetic (mu_{eff}= 1.85 mu_{B} and Theta_{W} = -46.4 K) spin-chain
system. A magnetic cusp gradually appears at about 100 K in T vs chi with the
Bi substitution. The cusp (x = 0.4) is fairly characterized by and therefore
suggests the spin gap nature at Delta/k_{B} ~ 80 K. The chain compounds hold
electrically insulating in the composition range.Comment: To be published in PR
Implications of invariance of the Hamiltonian under canonical transformations in phase space
We observe that, within the effective generating function formalism for the
implementation of canonical transformations within wave mechanics, non-trivial
canonical transformations which leave invariant the form of the Hamilton
function of the classical analogue of a quantum system manifest themselves in
an integral equation for its stationary state eigenfunctions. We restrict
ourselves to that subclass of these dynamical symmetries for which the
corresponding effective generating functions are necessaarily free of quantum
corrections. We demonstrate that infinite families of such transformations
exist for a variety of familiar conservative systems of one degree of freedom.
We show how the geometry of the canonical transformations and the symmetry of
the effective generating function can be exploited to pin down the precise form
of the integral equations for stationary state eigenfunctions. We recover
several integral equations found in the literature on standard special
functions of mathematical physics. We end with a brief discussion (relevant to
string theory) of the generalization to scalar field theories in 1+1
dimensions.Comment: REVTeX v3.1, 13 page
Ammonia Measurements and Emissions from a California Dairy Using Point and Remote Sensors
Ammonia (NH3) is an important trace gas species in the atmosphere that can have negative impacts on human, animal, and ecosystem health. Agriculture has been identified as the largest source of NH3, specifically livestock operations. NH3 emissions from a commercial dairy in California were investigated during June 2008. Cattle were held in open-lot pens, except for young calves in hutches with shelters. Solid manure was stored in the open-lot pens. Liquid manure from feed lanes was passed through a solids settling basin and stored in a holding pond. Passive sensors and openpath Fourier transform infrared spectrometers (OP-FTIR) were deployed around the facility to measure NH3 concentrations. Emissions from pens and the liquid manure system (LMS) were estimated using inverse modeling. Mean emission factors (EFs) for the entire facility were 140.5 ±42.5 g d-1 animal-1 from the passive sampler data and 199.2 ±22.0 g d-1 animal-1 from the OP-FTIR data, resulting in the facility’s summer emissions calculated at 265.2 ±80.2 kg d-1 and 375.4 ±27.1 kg d-1, respectively. These EFs are within the range of values reported in the literature. Both concentrations and emissions exhibited a strong diurnal cycle, peaking in the late afternoon. Total facility emissions exhibited significant positive correlations with temperature and wind speed. The findings of this study show that NH3 emissions from a commercial dairy can vary by a factor of 10 or more throughout the day, and EFs can vary by two orders of magnitude when compared to other U.S. dairies, based on literature values
A case series of patients with isolated IgG4-related hypophysitis treated with rituximab
Context The acute presentation of Immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-related hypophysitis can be indistinguishable from other forms of acute hypophysitis and histology remains the diagnostic gold standard. The high recurrence rate necessitates long term immunosuppressive therapy. Rituximab (RTX) has been shown to be effective in systemic IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD), but experience with isolated pituitary involvement remains limited. Case description We report three female patients with MRI findings suggestive of hypophysitis. All patients underwent transsphenoidal biopsy and fulfilled diagnostic criteria for IgG4-related hypophysitis. Treatment with GCs (GC) resulted in good therapeutic response in patients 1 and 2, but the disease recurred on tapering doses of GCs. GC treatment led to emotional lability in Patient 3 necessitating dose reduction. All three patients received RTX and Patients 2 and 3 received further courses when symptoms returned and B-cells repopulated. Patient 3 did not receive RTX until 12 months from onset of symptoms. Patient 1 was not able to have further RTX treatments due to an allergic reaction when receiving the second dose. RTX treatment resulted in sustained remission and full recovery of anterior pituitary function in Patients 1 and 2 with complete resolution of pituitary enlargement. By contrast, Patient 3 only showed symptomatic response following RTX treatment, but pituitary enlargement and hypofunction persisted. Conclusion RTX treatment for IgG4-related hypophysitis resulted in sustained remission in two patients treated early in the disease process, but only achieved partial response in a patient with chronic disease suggesting that early therapeutic intervention may be crucial to avoid irreversible changes
The use of routine outcome measures in two child and adolescent mental health services: a completed audit cycle
Background: Routine outcome measurement (ROM) is important for assessing the clinical effectiveness of health services and for monitoring patient outcomes. Within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the UK the adoption of ROM in CAMHS has been supported by both national and local initiatives (such as government strategies, local commissioning policy, and research). Methods: With the aim of assessing how these policies and initiatives may have influenced the uptake of ROM within two different CAMHS we report the findings of two case-note audits: a baseline audit conducted in January 2011 and a re-audit conducted two years later in December 2012-February 2013. Results: The findings show an increase in both the single and repeated use of outcome measures from the time of the original audit, with repeated use (baseline and follow-up) of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) scale increasing from 10% to 50% of cases. Re-audited case-notes contained more combined use of different outcome measures, with greater consensus on which measures to use. Outcome measures that were applicable across a wide range of clinical conditions were more likely to be used than symptom-specific measures, and measures that were completed by the clinician were found more often than measures completed by the service user. Conclusions: The findings show a substantial improvement in the use of outcome measures within CAMHS. These increases in use were found across different service organisations which were subject to different types of local service priorities and drivers
Multi-graviton theory, a latticized dimension, and the cosmological constant
Beginning with the Pauli-Fierz theory, we construct a model for
multi-graviton theory. Couplings between gravitons belonging to
nearest-neighbor ``theory spaces'' lead to a discrete mass spectrum. Our model
coincides with the Kaluza-Klein theory whose fifth dimension is latticized.
We evaluate one-loop vacuum energy in models with a circular latticized extra
dimension as well as with compact continuous dimensions. We find that the
vacuum energy can take a positive value, if the dimension of the continuous
space time is . Moreover, since the amount of the vacuum energy can
be an arbitrary small value according to the choice of parameters in the model,
our models is useful to explain the small positive dark energy in the present
universe.Comment: 10 pages, No figure. Needs REVTeX4. citations are corrected and minor
correction
Deformation Quantization of Bosonic Strings
Deformation quantization of bosonic strings is considered. We show that the
light-cone gauge is the most convenient classical description to perform the
quantization of bosonic strings in the deformation quantization formalism.
Similar to the field theory case, the oscillator variables greatly facilitates
the analysis. The mass spectrum, propagators and the Virasoro algebra are
finally described within this deformation quantization scheme.Comment: 33+1 pages, harvmac file, no figure
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