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Conveying the "right" kind of message: Planning for the first language and culture within the primary classroom
Copyright @ 2008 the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.This school-based reflective narrative explores how one inner London primary school raised their awareness of the language needs of Advanced Bilingual Learners (ABL) through an emphasis on developing and celebrating pupilsâ first language skills alongside English. It stresses the central role of the teacher in planning language learning environments which empower pupils to talk confidently in their first language without feeling marginalised. In this setting, no one language is viewed as being of a lower status than the other. This paper outlines the teacherâs role in crafting this process by building on pupilsâ social and cultural experiences. It further highlights the role of senior management in developing a whole-school ethos which promotes linguistic and cultural diversity, where the identities of multilingual pupils are nurtured. Evidence was collected through participant observation work conducted over a one-year period. The study was predominantly focused within a Year Six classroom (pupils aged between 10-11 years) in a multicultural school where the majority of pupils had Punjabi as their first language. At the time of the study, the school operated within the support framework and principles of a DfES (Department for Education and Skills) National Pilot Project within the UK (2004-2006). The national project was designed to promote a heightened awareness of strategies to support ABL at Key Stage Two (pupils between 7-11 years)
The effect of timing noise on targeted and narrow-band coherent searches for continuous gravitational waves from pulsars
Most searches for continuous gravitational-waves from pulsars use Taylor
expansions in the phase to model the spin-down of neutron stars. Studies of
pulsars demonstrate that their electromagnetic (EM) emissions suffer from
\emph{timing noise}, small deviations in the phase from Taylor expansion
models. How the mechanism producing EM emission is related to any continuous
gravitational-wave (CW) emission is unknown; if they either interact or are
locked in phase then the CW will also experience timing noise. Any disparity
between the signal and the search template used in matched filtering methods
will result in a loss of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), referred to as
`mismatch'. In this work we assume the CW suffers a similar level of timing
noise to its EM counterpart. We inject and recover fake CW signals, which
include timing noise generated from observational data on the Crab pulsar.
Measuring the mismatch over durations of order months, the effect is
for the most part found to be small. This suggests recent so-called
`narrow-band' searches which placed upper limits on the signals from the Crab
and Vela pulsars will not be significantly affected. At a fixed observation
time, we find the mismatch depends upon the observation epoch. Considering the
averaged mismatch as a function of observation time, we find that it increases
as a power law with time, and so may become relevant in long baseline searches.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Comparing models of the periodic variations in spin-down and beam-width for PSR B1828-11
We build a framework using tools from Bayesian data analysis to evaluate
models explaining the periodic variations in spin-down and beam-width of PSR
B1828-11. The available data consists of the time averaged spin-down rate,
which displays a distinctive double-peaked modulation, and measurements of the
beam-width. Two concepts exist in the literature that are capable of explaining
these variations; we formulate predictive models from these and quantitatively
compare them. The first concept is phenomenological and stipulates that the
magnetosphere undergoes periodic switching between two meta-stable states as
first suggested by Lyne et al. The second concept, precession, was first
considered as a candidate for the modulation of B1828-11 by Stairs et al.. We
quantitatively compare models built from these concepts using a Bayesian
odds-ratio. Because the phenomenological switching model itself was informed by
this data in the first place, it is difficult to specify appropriate
parameter-space priors that can be trusted for an unbiased model comparison.
Therefore we first perform a parameter estimation using the spin-down data, and
then use the resulting posterior distributions as priors for model comparison
on the beam-width data. We find that a precession model with a simple circular
Gaussian beam geometry fails to appropriately describe the data, while allowing
for a more general beam geometry provides a good fit to the data. The resulting
odds between the precession model (with a general beam geometry) and the
switching model are estimated as in favour of the precession
model.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures; removed incorrect factor of (2\pi) from
equation (15), allowed for arbitrary braking index, and revised prior ranges;
overall conclusions unchange
Determination of two-stroke engine exhaust noise by the method of characteristics
A computational technique was developed for the method of characteristics solution of a one-dimensional flow in a duct as applied to the wave action in an engine exhaust system. By using the method, it was possible to compute the unsteady flow in both straight pipe and tuned expansion chamber exhaust systems as matched to the flow from the cylinder of a small two-stroke engine. The radiated exhaust noise was then determined by assuming monopole radiation from the tailpipe outlet. Very good agreement with experiment on an operation engine was achieved in the calculation of both the third octave radiated noise and the associated pressure cycles at several locations in the different exhaust systems. Of particular interest is the significance of nonlinear behavior which results in wave steepening and shock wave formation. The method computes the precise paths on the x-t plane of a finite number of C(sub +), C(sub -) and P characteristics, thereby obtaining high accuracy in determining the tailpipe outlet velocity and the radiated noise
Biodetection grinder
Work on a biodetection grinder is summarized. It includes development of the prototype grinder, second generation grinder, and the production version of the grinder. Tests showed the particle size distribution was satisfactory and biological evaluation confirmed the tests
Spectrum of Neutral Helium in Strong Magnetic Fields
We present extensive and accurate calculations for the excited state spectrum
of spin-polarized neutral helium in a range of magnetic field strengths up to
G. Of considerable interest to models of magnetic white dwarf stellar
atmospheres, we also present results for the dipole strengths of the low lying
transitions among these states. Our methods rely on a systematically saturated
basis set approach to solving the Hartree--Fock self-consistent field
equations, combined with an ``exact'' stochastic method to estimate the
residual basis set truncation error and electron correlation effects. We also
discuss the applicability of the adiabatic approximation to strongly magnetized
multi-electron atoms.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, 10 table
The effectiveness of an oculometer training tape on pilot and copilot trainees in a commercial flight training program
A study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a video tape detailing the various aspects of instrument scanning by experienced pilots on performance by pilots and copilots undergoing flight training in a Boeing 737 flight simulator. The performance ratings by instructor pilots (IP's) and self-reported instrument scan behavior by trainees were compared with those of a control group. The results indicated that the training tape had little or no effect on performance by trainees in the experimental group. Feedback from the IP's and trainees suggested that a feedback strategy providing each trainee's individual instrument scan behavior might be more beneficial in flight training than the general instructional strategy of the oculometer training tape. Flight training personnel and trainees' reports of performance decrements on or around the third day of flight simulator training were investigated. The IP's performance ratings of 27 pilot and copilot trainees failed to reveal a systematic performance decrement; however, feedback from the trainees revealed that their own attribution of performance decrements was associated with the order in which their training occurred within a session. Further research was suggested
Acceleration Rates and Injection Efficiencies in Oblique Shocks
The rate at which particles are accelerated by the first-order Fermi
mechanism in shocks depends on the angle, \teq{\Tbone}, that the upstream
magnetic field makes with the shock normal. The greater the obliquity the
greater the rate, and in quasi-perpendicular shocks rates can be hundreds of
times higher than those seen in parallel shocks. In many circumstances
pertaining to evolving shocks (\eg, supernova blast waves and interplanetary
traveling shocks), high acceleration rates imply high maximum particle energies
and obliquity effects may have important astrophysical consequences. However,
as is demonstrated here, the efficiency for injecting thermal particles into
the acceleration mechanism also depends strongly on obliquity and, in general,
varies inversely with \teq{\Tbone}. The degree of turbulence and the resulting
cross-field diffusion strongly influences both injection efficiency and
acceleration rates. The test particle \mc simulation of shock acceleration used
here assumes large-angle scattering, computes particle orbits exactly in
shocked, laminar, non-relativistic flows, and calculates the injection
efficiency as a function of obliquity, Mach number, and degree of turbulence.
We find that turbulence must be quite strong for high Mach number, highly
oblique shocks to inject significant numbers of thermal particles and that only
modest gains in acceleration rates can be expected for strong oblique shocks
over parallel ones if the only source of seed particles is the thermal
background.Comment: 24 pages including 6 encapsulated figures, as a compressed,
uuencoded, Postscript file. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Implications of an r-mode in XTE J1751-305: Mass, radius and spin evolution
Recently Strohmayer and Mahmoodifar presented evidence for a coherent
oscillation in the X-ray light curve of the accreting millisecond pulsar XTE
J1751-305, using data taken by RXTE during the 2002 outburst of this source.
They noted that a possible explanation includes the excitation of a non-radial
oscillation mode of the neutron star, either in the form of a g-mode or an
r-mode. The r-mode interpretation has connections with proposed spin-evolution
scenarios for systems such as XTE J1751-305. Here we examine in detail this
interesting possible interpretation. Using the ratio of the observed
oscillation frequency to the star's spin frequency, we derive an approximate
neutron star mass-radius relation which yields reasonable values for the mass
over the range of expected stellar radius (as constrained by observations of
radius-expansion burst sources). However, we argue that the large mode
amplitude suggested by the Strohmayer and Mahmoodifar analysis would inevitably
lead to a large spin-down of the star, inconsistent with its observed spin
evolution, regardless of whether the r-mode itself is in a stable or unstable
regime. We therefore conclude that the r-mode interpretation of the observed
oscillation is not consistent with our current understanding of neutron star
dynamics and must be considered unlikely. Finally we note that, subject to the
availability of a sufficiently accurate timing model, a direct
gravitational-wave search may be able to confirm or reject an r-mode
interpretation unambiguously, should such an event, with a similar inferred
mode amplitude, recur during the Advanced detector era.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; submitted to MNRA
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