A monopole solution from noncommutative multi-instantons

We extend the relation between instanton and monopole solutions of the selfduality equations in SU(2) gauge theory to noncommutative space-times. Using this approach and starting from a noncommutative multi-instanton solution we construct a U(2) monopole configuration which lives in 3 dimensional ordinary space. This configuration resembles the Wu-Yang monopole and satisfies the selfduality (Bogomol'nyi) equations for a U(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs system.Comment: 19 pages; title and abstract changed, brane interpretation corrected. Version to appear in JHE

Apologues and fables as educational resources on earth sciences

Comunicação apresentada ao VIII Congresso Nacional de Geologia, em Braga (9-16 de Julho 2010)O presente trabalho visa dar a conhecer a literatura infantil editada no âmbito do Programa de Divulgação no triénio dedicado ao Ano Internacional do Planeta Terra (AIPT), em Portugal (2007-2009), a que o Comité Português para o AIPT deu o seu apoio institucional – representada por apólogos e fábulas inovadores, cujos protagonistas e/ou enredos remetem para o conhecimento no âmbito de várias disciplinas das Ciências da Terra, entre outras –, bem como destacar o papel que tais narrativas podem desempenhar como recursos educativos pertinentes para a promoção de um desenvolvimento sustentável.This paper aims to promote children’s literature published in the framework of the Outreach Programme during the three years dedicated to the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE), in Portugal (2007-2009), which the Portuguese Committee for IYPE gave its institutional support – represented by innovative apologues and fables, whose protagonists and/or plots refer to the knowledge of several disciplines within the Earth Sciences, among others - as well as highlighting the role that such narratives can play as educational resources relevant to the promotion of sustainable development

The Virtual Environments and Platforms in the Teaching of English

Abstract The research aims to highlight the significance of virtual learning environments and platforms in promoting cognitive competencies through interactive learning. The objective is to create effective learning environments by utilizing Virtual Learning Environments and implementing platforms to enhance communicative competencies. The methodology employed for this study includes quantitative and qualitative, descriptive, and predictive approaches, using technological innovation through the implementation of the Schoology platform based on the TPACK model. The results of the study indicate that students exhibit high levels of motivation and discernment toward virtual environments, particularly in English classes. Therefore, selecting appropriate didactic resources and incorporating pedagogical mediation is crucial for optimizing learning outcomes. It is essential to educate students on the significance of learning a foreign language and how it can impact the neural structure of the bilingual brain. Virtual environments facilitate interaction between team members, leading to the creation of new networks and learning environments for the development of language and communicative competencies in another language. Keywords: virtual environments, English teaching, technological innovation, TPACK model. Resumen La investigación se enfoca en la importancia de los entornos y plataformas virtuales de aprendizaje porque permiten la interacción para desarrollar competencias cognitivas, para ello el objetivo consiste en generar ambientes de aprendizaje basados en los Entornos Virtuales de Aprendizaje, mediante la implementación de plataformas y fortalecer las competencias comunicativas, con este fin la metodología tiene un enfoque cuantitativo – cualitativo, de naturaleza descriptiva y predictiva desde la innovación tecnológica con la implementación de plataforma Schoology basados en el modelo TPACK. De acuerdo a los resultados, se evidencia que existe un alto discernimiento y motivación de los estudiantes a la implementación de los entornos virtuales, en particular a las clases de inglés. Para lo cual la necesidad de una mediación pedagógica en la selección de los recursos didácticos podría potencializar aún más el aprendizaje, para ello es fundamental hacer comprender a los estudiantes la relevancia de aprender un idioma extranjero y como este cambia en la estructura neuronal y su trascendencia en un cerebro bilingüe. Por tanto, los entornos virtuales promueven la interacción entre equipos de trabajo con la finalidad de generar nuevas redes y ambientes de aprendizaje, para el desarrollo de competencias lingüísticas y comunicativas en otro idioma. Palabras Clave: entornos virtuales, enseñanza inglesa, innovación tecnológica, modelo TPACK

Software project management: learning from our mistakes

In the January/February 2014 issue of IEEE Software, the Voice of Evidence column published an article titled ?Looking for the Holy Grail of Software Development?. In that article, the authors reviewed the main practices that software project managers needed to engage in to make success more likely. While it is important to know what software project managers should do, a complementary question is, What should they not do? In other words, what practices should software project managers avoid to make success more likely? Answering this question might assist current and future software project managers in preventing, or at least mitigating, problematic scenarios that, if unresolved, will eventually lead to additional project failures. In the words of Laplante et al ?While it is certainly useful to study the successful ways people solve problems, the old adage that we learn from our mistakes suggests that studying failures might be even more fruitful.

Some interesting gasteroid and secotioid fungi from Sonora, Mexico

Nine rare species of gasteroid and secotioid fungi from Sonora, Mexico are treated here: Agaricus texensis (= Longula texensis), Araneosa columellata, Calvatia bicolor, C. craniiformis, C. pygmaea, Disciseda hyalothrix, D. verrucosa, Endoptychum arizonicum, and D. stuckertii (= Abstoma stuckertii), which is a new combination. SEM micrographs of all studied taxa are included

Some interesting gasteroid and secotioid fungi from Sonora, Mexico

Nine rare species of gasteroid and secotioid fungi from Sonora, Mexico are treated here: Agaricus texensis (= Longula texensis), Araneosa columellata, Calvatia bicolor, C. craniiformis, C. pygmaea, Disciseda hyalothrix, D. verrucosa, Endoptychum arizonicum, and D. stuckertii (= Abstoma stuckertii), which is a new combination. SEM micrographs of all studied taxa are included

Alpha and beta phylogenetic diversities jointly reveal ant community assembly mechanisms along a tropical elevational gradient

Despite the long-standing interest in the organization of ant communities across elevational gradients, few studies have incorporated the evolutionary information to understand the historical processes that underlay such patterns. Through the evaluation of phylogenetic α and β-diversity, we analyzed the structure of leaf-litter ant communities along the Cofre de Perote mountain in Mexico and evaluated whether deterministic- (i.e., habitat filtering, interspecific competition) or stochastic-driven processes (i.e., dispersal limitation) were driving the observed patterns. Lowland and some highland sites showed phylogenetic clustering, whereas intermediate elevations and the highest site presented phylogenetic overdispersion. We infer that strong environmental constraints found at the bottom and the top elevations are favoring closely-related species to prevail at those elevations. Conversely, less stressful climatic conditions at intermediate elevations suggest interspecific interactions are more important in these environments. Total phylogenetic dissimilarity was driven by the turnover component, indicating that the turnover of ant species along the mountain is actually shifts of lineages adapted to particular locations resembling their ancestral niche. The greater phylogenetic dissimilarity between communities was related to greater temperature differences probably due to narrow thermal tolerances inherent to several ant lineages that evolved in more stable conditions. Our results suggest that the interplay between environmental filtering, interspecific competition and habitat specialization plays an important role in the assembly of leaf-litter ant communities along elevational gradients