39,151 research outputs found
An Evening Spent with Bill van Zwet
Willem Rutger van Zwet was born in Leiden, the Netherlands, on March 31,
1934. He received his high school education at the Gymnasium Haganum in The
Hague and obtained his Masters degree in Mathematics at the University of
Leiden in 1959. After serving in the army for almost two years, he obtained his
Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam in 1964, with Jan Hemelrijk as advisor. In
1965, he was appointed Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of
Leiden and promoted to Full Professor in 1968. He remained in Leiden until his
retirement in 1999, while also serving as Associate Professor at the University
of Oregon (1965), William Newman Professor at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill (1990--1996), frequent visitor and Miller Professor (1997) at
the University of California at Berkeley, director of the Thomas Stieltjes
Institute of Mathematics in the Netherlands (1992--1999), and founding director
of the European research institute EURANDOM (1997--2000). At Leiden, he was
Dean of the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (1982--1984). He served
as chair of the scientific council and member of the board of the Mathematics
Centre at Amsterdam (1983--1996) and the Leiden University Fund (1993--2005).Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-STS261 the Statistical
Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
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Hands on - hands off: on hitting your thumb with a virtual hammer
In a wired world even the most physically embodied craft skills are affected by computer facilitated communication. To consider how different sorts of space – both real and virtual – influence the learning of craft skills this paper presents three types of space – the ‘real’ space of a jewellery workshop, an online ‘wiki’ space for learning how to make a folding knife mediated by face to face interaction and an online discussion group about French Horn making. Some features common to the learning of any craft skill are discussed as well as some current ideas about the influence of networked communication on the way people relate to each other. Conclusions are drawn about the relationships between different types of learner, different types of skill and different types of learning space which demonstrate that while there may be no substitute for face to face contact in learning the most embodied craft skills, even in real-world settings a significant proportion of learning depends on social interaction which may be reproduced online.
Keywords:
Craft learning; Apprenticeship; Communities of Practice; Online Networks</p
Max E. G. Bartels and the Javan lapwing Vanellus macropterus
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A randomized controlled pilot trial of classroom-based mindfulness meditation compared to an active control condition in sixth-grade children
The current study is a pilot trial to examine the effects of a nonelective, classroom-based, teacher-implemented, mindfulness meditation intervention on standard clinical measures of mental health and affect in middle school children. A total of 101 healthy sixth-grade students (55 boys, 46 girls) were randomized to either an Asian history course with daily mindfulness meditation practice (intervention group) or an African history course with a matched experiential activity (active control group). Self-reported measures included the Youth Self Report (YSR), a modified Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Measure –Revised. Both groups decreased significantly on clinical syndrome subscales and affect but did not differ in the extent of their improvements. Meditators were significantly less likely to develop suicidal ideation or thoughts of self-harm than controls. These results suggest that mindfulness training may yield both unique and non-specific benefits that are shared by other novel activities
Recovery of the Shape of the Mass Power Spectrum from the Lyman-alpha Forest
We propose a method for recovering the shape of the mass power spectrum on
large scales from the transmission fluctuations of the Lyman-alpha forest,
which takes into account directly redshift-space distortions. The procedure, in
discretized form, involves the inversion of a triangular matrix which projects
the mass power spectrum in 3-D real-space to the transmission power spectrum in
1-D redshift-space. We illustrate the method by performing a linear calculation
relating the two. A method that does not take into account redshift-space
anisotropy tends to underestimate the steepness of the mass power spectrum, in
the case of linear distortions. The issue of the effective bias-factor for the
linear distortion kernel is discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; minor revision
A study of the usefulness of Skylab EREP data for earth resources studies in Australia
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
What is the probability that a random integral quadratic form in variables has an integral zero?
We show that the density of quadratic forms in variables over that are isotropic is a rational function of , where the rational
function is independent of , and we determine this rational function
explicitly. When real quadratic forms in variables are distributed
according to the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) of random matrix theory, we
determine explicitly the probability that a random such real quadratic form is
isotropic (i.e., indefinite).
As a consequence, for each , we determine an exact expression for the
probability that a random integral quadratic form in variables is isotropic
(i.e., has a nontrivial zero over ), when these integral quadratic
forms are chosen according to the GOE distribution. In particular, we find an
exact expression for the probability that a random integral quaternary
quadratic form has an integral zero; numerically, this probability is
approximately .Comment: 17 pages. This article supercedes arXiv:1311.554
IRAS versus POTENT Density Fields on Large Scales: Biasing and Omega
The galaxy density field as extracted from the IRAS 1.2 Jy redshift survey is
compared to the mass density field as reconstructed by the POTENT method from
the Mark III catalog of peculiar velocities. The reconstruction is done with
Gaussian smoothing of radius 12 h^{-1}Mpc, and the comparison is carried out
within volumes of effective radii 31-46 h^{-1}Mpc, containing approximately
10-26 independent samples. Random and systematic errors are estimated from
multiple realizations of mock catalogs drawn from a simulation that mimics the
observed density field in the local universe. The relationship between the two
density fields is found to be consistent with gravitational instability theory
in the mildly nonlinear regime and a linear biasing relation between galaxies
and mass. We measure beta = Omega^{0.6}/b_I = 0.89 \pm 0.12 within a volume of
effective radius 40 h^{-1}Mpc, where b_I is the IRAS galaxy biasing parameter
at 12 h^{-1}Mpc. This result is only weakly dependent on the comparison volume,
suggesting that cosmic scatter is no greater than \pm 0.1. These data are thus
consistent with Omega=1 and b_I\approx 1. If b_I>0.75, as theoretical models of
biasing indicate, then Omega>0.33 at 95% confidence. A comparison with other
estimates of beta suggests scale-dependence in the biasing relation for IRAS
galaxies.Comment: 35 pages including 10 figures, AAS Latex, Submitted to The
Astrophysical Journa
Universal transport signatures of Majorana fermions in superconductor-Luttinger liquid junctions
One of the most promising proposals for engineering topological
superconductivity and Majorana fermions employs a spin-orbit coupled nanowire
subjected to a magnetic field and proximate to an s-wave superconductor. When
only part of the wire's length contacts to the superconductor, the remaining
conducting portion serves as a natural lead that can be used to probe these
Majorana modes via tunneling. The enhanced role of interactions in one
dimension dictates that this configuration should be viewed as a
superconductor-Luttinger liquid junction. We investigate such junctions between
both helical and spinful Luttinger liquids, and topological as well as
non-topological superconductors. We determine the phase diagram for each case
and show that universal low-energy transport in these systems is governed by
fixed points describing either perfect normal reflection or perfect Andreev
reflection. In addition to capturing (in some instances) the familiar
Majorana-mediated `zero-bias anomaly' in a new framework, we show that
interactions yield dramatic consequences in certain regimes. Indeed, we
establish that strong repulsion removes this conductance anomaly altogether
while strong attraction produces dynamically generated effective Majorana modes
even in a junction with a trivial superconductor. Interactions further lead to
striking signatures in the local density of states and the line-shape of the
conductance peak at finite voltage, and also are essential for establishing
smoking-gun transport signatures of Majorana fermions in spinful Luttinger
liquid junctions.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, v
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