Professional Development On-line

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is making increased use of the Web to develop and support communities of professionals. This paper outlines the factors driving the adoption of CPD and highlights areas where the Web can aid in the development of successful professional communities. Current work to provide on-line support for approximately 500 teachers of computing is then presented, highlighting those aspects of the Web site designed to foster and engage participants in the professional development activity

Gaussianity revisited: Exploring the Kibble-Zurek mechanism with superconducting rings

In this paper we use spontaneous flux production in annular superconductors to shed light on the Kibble-Zurek scenario. In particular, we examine the effects of finite size and external fields, neither of which is directly amenable to the KZ analysis. Supported by 1D and 3D simulations, the properties of a superconducting ring are seen to be well represented by analytic Gaussian approximations which encode the KZ scales indirectly. Experimental results for annuli in the presence of external fields corroborate these findings.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures; submitted to J. Phys: Condens. Matter for the special issue 'Condensed Matter Analogues of Cosmology'; v2: considerably reduced length, incorporation of experimental details into main text, discussion improved, references added, version accepted for publicatio

Technical manpower for the next hundred years

A long-range view of world needs — considering such factors as population expansion, food and energy requirements, natural resources, and the rise in standard of living — indicates that the technical manpower shortage is here to stay

Studying a relativistic field theory at finite chemical potential with the density matrix renormalization group

The density matrix renormalization group is applied to a relativistic complex scalar field at finite chemical potential. The two-point function and various bulk quantities are studied. It is seen that bulk quantities do not change with the chemical potential until it is larger than the minimum excitation energy. The technical limitations of the density matrix renormalization group for treating bosons in relativistic field theories are discussed. Applications to other relativistic models and to nontopological solitons are also suggested.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures; v2: title changed; references added, conclusions expanded, to be published in PR

Examining the importance of Aberdeenshire (UK) coastal waters for North Sea bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates)

Using land- and vessel-based surveys, data on the relative abundance, distribution and habitat use of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Aberdeenshire waters were collected between 1999 and 2001. Bottlenose dolphins were present throughout the year, with peak abundance during the months of March to May. The occurrence of calves was seasonal, With the proportion of calves highest during the spring months. Foraging behaviour was recorded mainly in the vicinity of Aberdeen harbour. Dolphins photographed in Aberdeenshire waters were successfully matched and confirmed as Moray Firth animals. The results of the present study suggest that Moray Firth bottlenose dolphins utilize Aberdeenshire waters more frequently than previously reported. Aberdeen harbour is apparently an important feeding area, and Aberdeenshire waters are regularly used by another-calf pairs. This has important management implications since this area of coastline does not currently form part of the designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for this population

Comparison of 3-D viscous flow computations of Mach 5 inlet with experimental data

A time marching 3-D full Navier-Stokes code, called PARC3D, is validated for an experimental Mach 5 inlet configuration using the data obtained in the 10 x 10 ft supersonic wind tunnel at the NASA Lewis Research Center. For the first time, a solution is obtained for this configuration with the actual geometry, the tunnel conditions, and all the bleed zones modeled in the computation. Pitot pressure profiles and static pressures at various locations in the inlet are compared with the corresponding experimental data. The effect of bleed zones, located in different places on the inlet walls, in eliminating the low energy vortical flow generated from the 3-D shock-boundary layer interaction is simulated very well even though some approximations are used in applying the bleed boundary conditions and in the turbulence model. A further detailed study of the effect of individual bleed ports is needed to understand fully the actual mechanism of efficiently eliminating the vortical flow from the inlet. A better turbulence model would help to improve the accuracy even further in predicting the corner flow boundary layer profiles

Supporting arts and science communities on-line

This paper examines the use of the Web to support continuing professional development (CPD). It outlines the factors driving the adoption of CPD and highlights areas where the Web can aid in the development of successful professional communities. A survey examining the use of the Internet to support professionals working in the domains of the Arts and Science is presented. The study reviews twenty four sites for the presence and degree of adoption of several key features including: - community building, range and value of content, user friendliness and guidance, sophistication of employed Web technology

Mach 5 inlet CFD and experimental results

An experimental research program was conducted in the NASA Lewis Research Center 10 x 10 ft supersonic wind tunnel. The 2-D inlet model was designed to study the Mach 3.0 to 5.0 speed range for an over-under turbojet plus ramjet propulsion system. The model was extensively instrumented to provide both analytical code validation data as well as inlet performance information. Support studies for the program include flow field predictions with both 3-D parabolized Navier-Stokes (PNS) and 3-D full Navier-Stokes (FNS) analytical codes. Analytical predictions and experimental results are compared

The Economic Consequences of Widowhood

We analyzed the economic consequences of a husband’s death using events that occurred between the first two waves of the HRS and AHEAD studies. We compared poverty transitions against published results from Social Security’s Retirement History Survey of the 1970s. Widowhood remains an important risk factor for transition into poverty, although somewhat less so than twenty years ago. Women over age 65 (AHEAD) are less likely to experience severe economic changes than women under age 61 (HRS). Several factors account for the age differences: the declining importance of husband’s earnings with age, the rising importance of Social Security benefits, and the occasionally large out-of-pocket medical expenses associated with husband’s death before Medicare eligibility. The greater economic impact of widowhood at younger ages is consistent with our cross-section evidence that poverty rates rise with duration of widowhood but are only weakly associated with age.