314 research outputs found
'Really on the ball': exploring the implications of teachers' PE-CPD experience
Continuing professional development (CPD) is currently high on the Scottish Education agenda. Recent curriculum reform in Scotland, with the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, places physical education (PE) at the forefront for its role in directly supporting learners' mental, emotional, social and physical well-being. This emphasis on PE, along with concerns about the health of the nation, has resulted in a nationwide initiative providing non-specialist teachers of primary PE with the opportunity to develop a specialism in the subject through government-funded CPD programmes at postgraduate level. Using Knowles' andragogical model as a framework, this paper reports data from a larger research study that evaluated a Scottish PE-CPD initiative. This paper comprises a single case holistic study investigating the impact and implications of a PE-CPD programme through the professional learning journeys, from the outset until completion, of four teachers: a nursery teacher, a class teacher, a cluster cover teacher and a PE specialist who participated in the programme. Data were collected over one academic year using two-stage questionnaire interviews and were analysed thematically with special attention given to the emerging general themes to achieve a holistic understanding of the case. Study findings endorse the positive impact of using the andragogical model of adult learning combined with the literature-supported characteristics of effective PE-CPD programmes. Teachers' perspectives on their CPD experiences, integration of acquired learning into working contexts and teaching post-PE-CPD were then examined to determine the next steps. This led to critical reflection on the implications of the findings for the teachers' ongoing professional development. We then challenged the role that university providers play in supporting teachers' lifelong learning. Instead, we suggest new school-university partnerships and alternative ways to support capacity building and lifelong learning towards a sustainable transformational change in Scotland's primary PE
Mutual Events in the Cold Classical Transneptunian Binary System Sila and Nunam
Hubble Space Telescope observations between 2001 and 2010 resolved the binary
components of the Cold Classical transneptunian object (79360) Sila-Nunam
(provisionally designated 1997 CS29). From these observations we have
determined the circular, retrograde mutual orbit of Nunam relative to Sila with
a period of 12.50995 \pm 0.00036 days and a semimajor axis of 2777 \pm 19 km. A
multi-year season of mutual events, in which the two near-equal brightness
bodies alternate in passing in front of one another as seen from Earth, is in
progress right now, and on 2011 Feb. 1 UT, one such event was observed from two
different telescopes. The mutual event season offers a rich opportunity to
learn much more about this barely-resolvable binary system, potentially
including component sizes, colors, shapes, and albedo patterns. The low
eccentricity of the orbit and a photometric lightcurve that appears to coincide
with the orbital period are consistent with a system that is tidally locked and
synchronized, like the Pluto-Charon system. The orbital period and semimajor
axis imply a system mass of (10.84 \pm 0.22) \times 10^18 kg, which can be
combined with a size estimate based on Spitzer and Herschel thermal infrared
observations to infer an average bulk density of 0.72 +0.37 -0.23 g cm^-3,
comparable to the very low bulk densities estimated for small transneptunian
binaries of other dynamical classes.Comment: In press in Icaru
Complex lithium ion dynamics in simulated LiPO3 glass studied by means of multi-time correlation functions
Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the lithium jumps in
LiPO3 glass. In particular, we calculate higher-order correlation functions
that probe the positions of single lithium ions at several times. Three-time
correlation functions show that the non-exponential relaxation of the lithium
ions results from both correlated back-and-forth jumps and the existence of
dynamical heterogeneities, i.e., the presence of a broad distribution of jump
rates. A quantitative analysis yields that the contribution of the dynamical
heterogeneities to the non-exponential depopulation of the lithium sites
increases upon cooling. Further, correlated back-and-forth jumps between
neighboring sites are observed for the fast ions of the distribution, but not
for the slow ions and, hence, the back-jump probability depends on the
dynamical state. Four-time correlation functions indicate that an exchange
between fast and slow ions takes place on the timescale of the jumps
themselves, i.e., the dynamical heterogeneities are short-lived. Hence, sites
featuring fast and slow lithium dynamics, respectively, are intimately mixed.
In addition, a backward correlation beyond the first neighbor shell for highly
mobile ions and the presence of long-range dynamical heterogeneities suggest
that fast ion migration occurs along preferential pathways in the glassy
matrix. In the melt, we find no evidence for correlated back-and-forth motions
and dynamical heterogeneities on the length scale of the next-neighbor
distance.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure
Anthropogenic Space Weather
Anthropogenic effects on the space environment started in the late 19th
century and reached their peak in the 1960s when high-altitude nuclear
explosions were carried out by the USA and the Soviet Union. These explosions
created artificial radiation belts near Earth that resulted in major damages to
several satellites. Another, unexpected impact of the high-altitude nuclear
tests was the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that can have devastating effects
over a large geographic area (as large as the continental United States). Other
anthropogenic impacts on the space environment include chemical release ex-
periments, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere and the interaction of
VLF waves with the radiation belts. This paper reviews the fundamental physical
process behind these phenomena and discusses the observations of their impacts.Comment: 71 pages, 35 figure
Controllability on infinite-dimensional manifolds
Following the unified approach of A. Kriegl and P.W. Michor (1997) for a
treatment of global analysis on a class of locally convex spaces known as
convenient, we give a generalization of Rashevsky-Chow's theorem for control
systems in regular connected manifolds modelled on convenient
(infinite-dimensional) locally convex spaces which are not necessarily
normable.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur
New Strategies in Sport Nutrition to Increase Exercise Performance.
Despite over 50 years of research, the field of sports nutrition continues to grow at a rapid rate. Whilst the traditional research focus was one that centred on strategies to maximize competition performance, emerging data in the last decade has demonstrated how both macronutrient and micronutrient availability can play a prominent role in regulating those cell signalling pathways that modulate skeletal muscle adaptations to endurance and resistance training. Nonetheless, in the context of exercise performance, it is clear that carbohydrate (but not fat) still remains king and that carefully chosen ergogenic aids (e.g. caffeine, creatine, sodium bicarbonate, beta-alanine, nitrates) can all promote performance in the correct exercise setting. In relation to exercise training, however, it is now thought that strategic periods of reduced carbohydrate and elevated dietary protein intake may enhance training adaptations whereas high carbohydrate availability and antioxidant supplementation may actually attenuate training adaptation. Emerging evidence also suggests that vitamin D may play a regulatory role in muscle regeneration and subsequent hypertrophy following damaging forms of exercise. Finally, novel compounds (albeit largely examined in rodent models) such as epicatechins, nicotinamide riboside, resveratrol, ÎČ-hydroxy ÎČ-methylbutyrate, phosphatidic acid and ursolic acid may also promote or attenuate skeletal muscle adaptations to endurance and strength training. When taken together, it is clear that sports nutrition is very much at the heart of the Olympic motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger)
The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector during 2011 data taking
The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the 2011 data taking period is described. During 2011 the LHC provided protonâproton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and heavy ion collisions with a 2.76 TeV per nucleonânucleon collision energy. The ATLAS trigger is a three level system designed to reduce the rate of events from the 40 MHz nominal maximum bunch crossing rate to the approximate 400 Hz which can be written to offline storage. The ATLAS jet trigger is the primary means for the online selection of events containing jets. Events are accepted by the trigger if they contain one or more jets above some transverse energy threshold. During 2011 data taking the jet trigger was fully efficient for jets with transverse energy above 25 GeV for triggers seeded randomly at Level 1. For triggers which require a jet to be identified at each of the three trigger levels, full efficiency is reached for offline jets with transverse energy above 60 GeV. Jets reconstructed in the final trigger level and corresponding to offline jets with transverse energy greater than 60 GeV, are reconstructed with a resolution in transverse energy with respect to offline jets, of better than 4 % in the central region and better than 2.5 % in the forward direction
Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eÎŒ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at âs = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (ÏttÂŻ) with a data sample of 3.2 fbâ1 of protonâproton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of âs = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electronâmuon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously ÏttÂŻ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be:
ÏttÂŻ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb,
where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented
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