Changing perceptions of preservice teachers : innovations in middle schooling teacher education

For the past twenty years, the disengagement of early adolescents has been the focus of much of the literature related to middle schooling. In response, some universities in Australia have introduced teacher education programs that focus upon graduating specialised middle schooling teachers. Constructing such programs is at the centre of much debate and discussion, however, it is advocated that positive futures for early adolescents can be enhanced through quality middle schooling teacher education programs (Education Queensland, 2004). At a Queensland university campus, middle schooling elective units were introduced as part of the Bachelor of Education (primary) degree. The design of the units was to support preservice teachers to gain the theoretical and pedagogical knowledge to engage and promote early adolescent learning. An innovative approach to the delivery of the units was promoted by a partnership agreement between local schools and the campus. The partnership allowed preservice teachers to combine university classes with opportunities to visit exemplary classrooms to observe, participate and reflect upon middle school teaching practices. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the 38 first-year preservice teachers’ perceptions of their first middle schooling elective unit and to ascertain whether the combination of university classes and school-based experiences assisted their development of middle schooling concepts and approaches. Data were gathered using pre-test and post-test questionnaires combined with guided written reflections to record their views before, after and during the unit delivery. Results indicated that initially 34 preservice teachers had little understanding of middle schooling concepts and pedagogical practices, however, 11 participants recognised that bullying and peer pressure were issues experienced by early adolescents. The collation of the written reflections supported the combined delivery of the middle years unit further supporting the inclusion of school experiences with university delivered units

Fermionic Quasi-free States and Maps in Information Theory

This paper and the results therein are geared towards building a basic toolbox for calculations in quantum information theory of quasi-free fermionic systems. Various entropy and relative entropy measures are discussed and the calculation of these reduced to evaluating functions on the one-particle component of quasi-free states. The set of quasi-free affine maps on the state space is determined and fully characterized in terms of operations on one-particle subspaces. For a subclass of trace preserving completely positive maps and for their duals, Choi matrices and Jamiolkowski states are discussed.Comment: 19 page

New technologies for urban designers: the VENUE project

In this report, we first outline the basic idea of VENUE. This involves developing digital tools froma foundation of geographic information systems (GIS) software which we then apply to urbandesign, a subject area and profession which has little tradition in using such tools. Our project wasto develop two types of tool, namely functional analysis based on embedding models of movementin local environments into GIS based on ideas from the field of space syntax; and secondlyfashioning these ideas in a wider digital context in which the entire range of GIS technologies werebrought to bear at the local scale. By local scale, we mean the representation of urban environmentsfrom about 1: 500 to around 1: 2500

GIS and urban design

Although urban planning has used computer models and information systems sincethe 1950s and architectural practice has recently restructured to the use of computeraideddesign (CAD) and computer drafting software, urban design has hardly beentouched by the digital world. This is about to change as very fine scale spatial datarelevant to such design becomes routinely available, as 2dimensional GIS(geographic information systems) become linked to 3dimensional CAD packages,and as other kinds of photorealistic media are increasingly being fused with thesesoftware. In this chapter, we present the role of GIS in urban design, outlining whatcurrent desktop software is capable of and showing how various new techniques canbe developed which make such software highly suitable as basis for urban design.We first outline the nature of urban design and then present ideas about how varioussoftware might form a tool kit to aid its process. We then look in turn at: utilisingstandard mapping capabilities within GIS relevant to urban design; buildingfunctional extensions to GIS which measure local scale accessibility; providingsketch planning capability in GIS and linking 2-d to 3-d visualisations using low costnet-enabled CAD browsers. We finally conclude with some speculations on thefuture of GIS for urban design across networks whereby a wide range of participantsmight engage in the design process digitally but remotely

The Velocity Field from Type Ia Supernovae Matches the Gravity Field from Galaxy Surveys

We compare the peculiar velocities of nearby SNe Ia with those predicted by the gravity fields of full sky galaxy catalogs. The method provides a powerful test of the gravitational instability paradigm and strong constraints on the density parameter beta = Omega^0.6/b. For 24 SNe Ia within 10,000 km/s we find the observed SNe Ia peculiar velocities are well modeled by the predictions derived from the 1.2 Jy IRAS survey and the Optical Redshift Survey (ORS). Our best $\beta$ is 0.4 from IRAS, and 0.3 from the ORS, with beta>0.7 and beta<0.15 ruled out at 95% confidence levels from the IRAS comparison. Bootstrap resampling tests show these results to be robust in the mean and in its error. The precision of this technique will improve as additional nearby SNe Ia are discovered and monitored.Comment: 16 pages (LaTex), 3 postscript figure

Maximum-Likelihood Comparisons of Tully-Fisher and Redshift Data: Constraints on Omega and Biasing

We compare Tully-Fisher (TF) data for 838 galaxies within cz=3000 km/sec from the Mark III catalog to the peculiar velocity and density fields predicted from the 1.2 Jy IRAS redshift survey. Our goal is to test the relation between the galaxy density and velocity fields predicted by gravitational instability theory and linear biasing, and thereby to estimate $\beta_I = \Omega^{0.6}/b_I,$ where $b_I$ is the linear bias parameter for IRAS galaxies. Adopting the IRAS velocity and density fields as a prior model, we maximize the likelihood of the raw TF observables, taking into account the full range of selection effects and properly treating triple-valued zones in the redshift-distance relation. Extensive tests with realistic simulated galaxy catalogs demonstrate that the method produces unbiased estimates of $\beta_I$ and its error. When we apply the method to the real data, we model the presence of a small but significant velocity quadrupole residual (~3.3% of Hubble flow), which we argue is due to density fluctuations incompletely sampled by IRAS. The method then yields a maximum likelihood estimate $\beta_I=0.49\pm 0.07$ (1-sigma error). We discuss the constraints on $\Omega$ and biasing that follow if we assume a COBE-normalized CDM power spectrum. Our model also yields the 1-D noise noise in the velocity field, including IRAS prediction errors, which we find to be be 125 +/- 20 km/sec.Comment: 53 pages, 20 encapsulated figures, two tables. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. Also available at http://astro.stanford.edu/jeff

Overconstrained dynamics in galaxy redshift surveys

The least-action principle (LAP) method is used on four galaxy redshift surveys to measure the density parameter Omega_m and the matter and galaxy-galaxy power spectra. The datasets are PSCz, ORS, Mark III and SFI. The LAP method is applied on the surveys simultaneously, resulting in an overconstrained dynamical system that describes the cosmic overdensities and velocity flows. The system is solved by relaxing the constraint that each survey imposes upon the cosmic fields. A least-squares optimization of the errors that arise in the process yields the cosmic fields and the value of Omega_m that is the best fit to the ensemble of datasets. The analysis has been carried out with a high-resolution Gaussian smoothing of 500 km/s and over a spherical selected volume of radius 9,000 km/s. We have assigned a weight to each survey, depending on their density of sampling, and this parameter determines their relative influence in limiting the domain of the overall solution. The influence of each survey on the final value of Omega_m, the cosmographical features of the cosmic fields and the power spectra largely depends on the distribution function of the errors in the relaxation of the constraints. We find that PSCz and Mark III are closer to the final solution than ORS and SFI. The likelihood analysis yields Omega_m= 0.37\pm 0.01 to 1sigma level. PSCz and SFI are the closest to this value, whereas ORS and Mark III predict a somewhat lower Omega_m. The model of bias employed is a scale-dependent one, and we retain up to 42 bias coefficients b_{rl} in the spherical harmonics formalism. The predicted power spectra are estimated in the range of wavenumbers 0.02-0.49h Mpc^{-1}, and we compare these results with measurements recently reported in the literature.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

Nearby Optical Galaxies: Selection of the Sample and Identification of Groups

In this paper we describe the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) sample, which is a complete, distance-limited ($cz\leq$6000 km/s) and magnitude-limited (B$\leq$14) sample of $\sim$7000 optical galaxies. The sample covers 2/3 (8.27 sr) of the sky ($|b|>20^{\circ}$) and appears to have a good completeness in redshift (98%). We select the sample on the basis of homogenized corrected total blue magnitudes in order to minimize systematic effects in galaxy sampling. We identify the groups in this sample by means of both the hierarchical and the percolation {\it friends of friends} methods. The resulting catalogs of loose groups appear to be similar and are among the largest catalogs of groups presently available. Most of the NOG galaxies ($\sim$60%) are found to be members of galaxy pairs ($\sim$580 pairs for a total of $\sim$15% of objects) or groups with at least three members ($\sim$500 groups for a total of $\sim$45% of objects). About 40% of galaxies are left ungrouped (field galaxies). We illustrate the main features of the NOG galaxy distribution. Compared to previous optical and IRAS galaxy samples, the NOG provides a denser sampling of the galaxy distribution in the nearby universe. Given its large sky coverage, the identification of groups, and its high-density sampling, the NOG is suited for the analysis of the galaxy density field of the nearby universe, especially on small scales.Comment: 47 pages including 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Galaxy Distances in the Nearby Universe: Corrections For Peculiar Motions

By correcting the redshift--dependent distances for peculiar motions through a number of peculiar velocity field models, we recover the true distances of a wide, all-sky sample of nearby galaxies (~ 6400 galaxies with velocities cz<5500 km/s), which is complete up to the blue magnitude B=14 mag. Relying on catalogs of galaxy groups, we treat ~2700 objects as members of galaxy groups and the remaining objects as field galaxies. We model the peculiar velocity field using: i) a cluster dipole reconstruction scheme; ii) a multi--attractor model fitted to the Mark II and Mark III catalogs of galaxy peculiar velocities. According to Mark III data the Great Attractor has a smaller influence on local dynamics than previously believed, whereas the Perseus-Pisces and Shapley superclusters acquire a specific dynamical role. Remarkably, the Shapley structure, which is found to account for nearly half the peculiar motion of the Local Group, is placed by Mark III data closer to the zone of avoidance with respect to its optical position. Our multi--attractor model based on Mark III data favors a cosmological density parameter Omega ~ 0.5 (irrespective of a biasing factor of order unity). Differences among distance estimates are less pronounced in the ~ 2000 - 4000 km/s distance range than at larger or smaller distances. In the last regions these differences have a serious impact on the 3D maps of the galaxy distribution and on the local galaxy density --- on small scales.Comment: 24 pages including (9 eps figures and 7 tables). Figures 1,2,3,4 are available only upon request. Accepted by Ap

Wear and Friction Modeling on Lifeboat Launch Systems

The RNLI provides search and rescue cover along the UK and RoI coast using a variety of lifeboats and launch techniques. In locations where there is no natural harbour it is necessary to use a slipway to launch the lifeboat into the sea. Lifeboat slipway stations consist of an initial section where the boat is held on rollers followed by an inclined keelway lined with low friction composite materials, the lifeboat is released from the top of the slipway and proceeds under its own weight into the water. The lifeboat is later recovered using a winch line. It is common to manually apply grease to the composite slipway lining before each launch and recovery in order to ensure sufficiently low friction for successful operation. With the introduction of the Tamar class lifeboat it is necessary to upgrade existing boathouses and standardise slipway operational procedures to ensure consistent operation. The higher contact pressures associated with the new lifeboat have led to issues of high friction and wear on the composite slipway linings and the manual application of grease to reduce friction is to be restricted due to environmental impact and cost factors. This paper presents a multidisciplinary approach to modelling slipway panel wear and friction using tribometer testing in conjunction with finite element analysis and slipway condition surveys to incorporate common real-world effects such as panel misalignments. Finally, it is shown that a freshwater lubrication system is effective, reducing cost and environmental impacts while maintaining good friction and wear performance