6,237 research outputs found
Using art to assess environmental education outcomes
Construction of developmentally appropriate tools for assessing the environmental attitudes and awareness of young learners has proven to be challenging. Art-based assessments that encourage creativity and accommodate different modes of expression may be a particularly useful complement to conventional tools (e.g. surveys), but their efficacy and feasibility across diverse contexts has not been adequately explored. To examine the potential utility of integrating art into evaluations of environmental education outcomes, we adapted an existing drawing prompt and corresponding grading rubric to assess the environmental attitudes and awareness of children (ages 6–12) at summer camps in Athens, GA, USA (n = 285). We then compared children’s drawings with scores on a more typical survey instrument that measured similar outcomes, the Children Environmental Perception’s Scale. Results showed that a drawing prompt was a practical and unique learner-centered tool for measuring distinct components of environmental attitudes and awareness. Findings also revealed different response patterns across the two instruments, highlighting the value of using multiple approaches (e.g. art-based and survey-based) to assess cognitive and affective aspects of children’s environmental orientations
Bring a plate: facilitating experimentation in the Welcome Dinner Project
Drawing on in-depth empirical research, we explore a project called The Welcome Dinner (WDP). The WDP aims to bring together ‘newly arrived’ people and ‘established Australians’ to meet and ‘share stories’ over a potluck meal in ‘the comfort of their own home’. The purpose is to create meaningful connections, new friendships and social solidarities. In this paper, we focus on the micro-contexts of the dinners and the minute activities and techniques that facilitators use in hosting. Our aim is not to analyse the effects of the project but rather the design and meaning of the activities. As a form of ‘designed everyday multiculturalism’, focused on welcoming new arrivals to Australia, it takes effort, skill and labour to manage the contact between different cultural groups over organised meals. Thus, facilitators take over the hosting of the lunches and dinners to run activities, which are imagined to lubricate social dynamics and relations, and produce convivial commensal affects and behaviours. Drawing on theories of training activities as embodied and cognitive experimentations, which enable new knowledge practices and social relations, we analyse field notes and interviews about the facilitation, structure and activities at the WDP home dinners
Local Density Approximation for proton-neutron pairing correlations. I. Formalism
In the present study we generalize the self-consistent
Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) theory formulated in the coordinate space to the
case which incorporates an arbitrary mixing between protons and neutrons in the
particle-hole (p-h) and particle-particle (p-p or pairing) channels. We define
the HFB density matrices, discuss their spin-isospin structure, and construct
the most general energy density functional that is quadratic in local
densities. The consequences of the local gauge invariance are discussed and the
particular case of the Skyrme energy density functional is studied. By varying
the total energy with respect to the density matrices the self-consistent
one-body HFB Hamiltonian is obtained and the structure of the resulting mean
fields is shown. The consequences of the time-reversal symmetry, charge
invariance, and proton-neutron symmetry are summarized. The complete list of
expressions required to calculate total energy is presented.Comment: 22 RevTeX page
Deformations of the fermion realization of the sp(4) algebra and its subalgebras
With a view towards future applications in nuclear physics, the fermion
realization of the compact symplectic sp(4) algebra and its q-deformed versions
are investigated. Three important reduction chains of the sp(4) algebra are
explored in both the classical and deformed cases. The deformed realizations
are based on distinct deformations of the fermion creation and annihilation
operators. For the primary reduction, the su(2) sub-structure can be
interpreted as either the spin, isospin or angular momentum algebra, whereas
for the other two reductions su(2) can be associated with pairing between
fermions of the same type or pairing between two distinct fermion types. Each
reduction provides for a complete classification of the basis states. The
deformed induced u(2) representations are reducible in the action spaces of
sp(4) and are decomposed into irreducible representations.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX 12pt article styl
A Transfer Matrix Technique for Evaluating the Natural Frequencies and Critical Speeds of a Rotor With Multiple Flexible Disks
The influence of disk flexibility on the rotordynamical behavior of turbomachinery is a topic that is of some concern to designers and analysts of such equipment. Research in this area Introduction Rotor systems have typically been modelled with the assumption that the bladed disks are much more rigid laterally than is the rotor shaft. As a result, little dynamical interaction is thought to occur between the two and the problems of disk dynamics and shaft dynamics can be treated separately. Rotor studies in which the effects of disk flexibility have been incorporated indicate that, under certain conditions, significant dynamical coupling may occur. Vance In the present work, the shaft is treated as a discrete system while the disk is modelled as a continuous system using the governing partial differential equation. A transfer matrix approach is then developed for the computation of the natural frequencies and critical speeds of rotors with multiple flexible disks. Using a model expansion method, disk flexibility effects are accounted for by means of additional terms included in a transfer matrix formulation of the rotor equations of motion. By so doing, the properties of quick computation speed and easy use are kept and the complexity of dividing disk into many elements or of solving partial differential equations is avoided. This leads to the present procedure which can be easily applied to practical engineering problems. This is especially true for multiple flexible disk rotors. Three different cases of disk flexibility for a multiple disk rotor have been studied using this procedure to demonstrate its usefulness in engineering practice and some interesting results are obtained
Dynamic behavior of a magnetic bearing supported jet engine rotor with auxiliary bearings
This paper presents a study of the dynamic behavior of a rotor system supported by auxiliary bearings. The steady-state behavior of a simulation model based upon a production jet engine is explored over a wide range of operating conditions for varying rotor imbalance, support stiffness and damping. Interesting dynamical phenomena, such as chaos, subharmonic responses, and double-valued responses, are presented and discussed
A New Algorithm for Supernova Neutrino Transport and Some Applications
We have developed an implicit, multi-group, time-dependent, spherical
neutrino transport code based on the Feautrier variables, the tangent-ray
method, and accelerated iteration. The code achieves high
angular resolution, is good to O(), is equivalent to a Boltzmann solver
(without gravitational redshifts), and solves the transport equation at all
optical depths with precision. In this paper, we present our formulation of the
relevant numerics and microphysics and explore protoneutron star atmospheres
for snapshot post-bounce models. Our major focus is on spectra, neutrino-matter
heating rates, Eddington factors, angular distributions, and phase-space
occupancies. In addition, we investigate the influence on neutrino spectra and
heating of final-state electron blocking, stimulated absorption, velocity terms
in the transport equation, neutrino-nucleon scattering asymmetry, and weak
magnetism and recoil effects. Furthermore, we compare the emergent spectra and
heating rates obtained using full transport with those obtained using
representative flux-limited transport formulations to gauge their accuracy and
viability. Finally, we derive useful formulae for the neutrino source strength
due to nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung and determine bremsstrahlung's influence
on the emergent and neutrino spectra.Comment: 58 pages, single-spaced LaTeX, 23 figures, revised title, also
available at http://jupiter.as.arizona.edu/~burrows/papers, accepted for
publication in the Ap.
Contribution of the massive photon decay channel to neutrino cooling of neutron stars
We consider massive photon decay reactions via intermediate states of
electron-electron-holes and proton-proton-holes into neutrino-antineutrino
pairs in the course of neutron star cooling. These reactions may become
operative in hot neutron stars in the region of proton pairing where the photon
due to the Higgs-Meissner effect acquires an effective mass that
is small compared to the corresponding plasma frequency. The contribution of
these reactions to neutrino emissivity is calculated; it varies with the
temperature and the photon mass as
for . Estimates show that these processes appear as extra
efficient cooling channels of neutron stars at temperatures K.Comment: accepted to publication in Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. (JETP
HIV prevalence and undiagnosed infection among a community sample of gay and bisexual men in Scotland, 2005-2011: implications for HIV testing policy and prevention
<b>Objective</b><p></p>
To examine HIV prevalence, HIV testing behaviour, undiagnosed infection and risk factors for HIV positivity among a community sample of gay men in Scotland.<p></p>
<b>Methods</b><p></p>
Cross-sectional survey of gay and bisexual men attending commercial gay venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland with voluntary anonymous HIV testing of oral fluid samples in 2011. A response rate of 65.2% was achieved (1515 participants).<p></p>
<b>Results</b><p></p>
HIV prevalence (4.8%, 95% confidence interval, CI 3.8% to 6.2%) remained stable compared to previous survey years (2005 and 2008) and the proportion of undiagnosed infection among HIV-positive men (25.4%) remained similar to that recorded in 2008. Half of the participants who provided an oral fluid sample stated that they had had an HIV test in the previous 12 months; this proportion is significantly higher when compared to previous study years (50.7% versus 33.8% in 2005, p<0.001). Older age (>25 years) was associated with HIV positivity (1.8% in those <25 versus 6.4% in older ages group) as was a sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis within the previous 12 months (adjusted odds ratio 2.13, 95% CI 1.09–4.14). There was no significant association between age and having an STI or age and any of the sexual behaviours recorded.<p></p>
<b>Conclusion</b><p></p>
HIV transmission continues to occur among gay and bisexual men in Scotland. Despite evidence of recent testing within the previous six months, suggesting a willingness to test, the current opt-out policy may have reached its limit with regards to maximising HIV test uptake. Novel strategies are required to improve regular testing opportunities and more frequent testing as there are implications for the use of other biomedical HIV interventions.<p></p>
Fully general relativistic simulation of coalescing binary neutron stars: Preparatory tests
We present our first successful numerical results of 3D general relativistic
simulations in which the Einstein equation as well as the hydrodynamic
equations are fully solved. This paper is especially devoted to simulations of
test problems such as spherical dust collapse, stability test of perturbed
spherical stars, and preservation of (approximate) equilibrium states of
rapidly rotating neutron star and/or corotating binary neutron stars. These
test simulations confirm that simulations of coalescing binary neutron stars
are feasible in a numerical relativity code. It is illustrated that using our
numerical code, simulations of these problems, in particular those of
corotating binary neutron stars, can be performed stably and fairly accurately
for a couple of dynamical timescales. These numerical results indicate that our
formulation for solving the Einstein field equation and hydrodynamic equations
are robust and make it possible to perform a realistic simulation of coalescing
binary neutron stars for a long time from the innermost circular orbit up to
formation of a black hole or neutron star.Comment: 36 pages, to be published in PRD 15, erase unnecessary figure
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