High school students\u27 attitudes toward single-sex choir versus mixed choir

Participants in this project included high school choral students (N = 54) from central Mississippi and their directors (N = 3). Participants were enrolled both in a mixed choir and either an all boy or all girl choir. A survey was constructed by the researcher to determine the attitudes of the participants toward singing and participation in choir. The 32 survey statements fell into one of four categories: perception of self as singer, attitude about gender in choir, others’ perception of self in choir, and attitude toward choir. In addition, participants were asked to provide demographic data about their gender, age, preference for mixed choir or gender specific choir, and favorite choir song. In order to examine possible differences in music selection that might impact students’ attitudes toward choir, teachers for all choirs responded to a questionnaire regarding philosophy of music teaching in choir. All pieces chosen as the favorite song of the students were analyzed for comparison among groups as well as to give some context to the survey responses. Results indicated singing no significant attitudinal differences between boys and girls in any of the categories, p \u3e .05. Participants were highly positive in their responses to all four categories of statements. The majority of the participants preferred participating in the mixed choir, with the females (89.47%) indicating an even higher preference for the mixed choir setting than the males (75%). The most common reason offered for preferring the mixed was the sound of the ensemble (p \u3c .05). Girls and boys had different preferences when it came to favorite songs, but reasons for preferring one piece over the other was predominantly related to musical elements (p \u3c .05). The teachers had a common philosophy that guided their selection of music

Multi-Boundary Entanglement in Chern-Simons Theory and Link Invariants

We consider Chern-Simons theory for gauge group $G$ at level $k$ on 3-manifolds $M_n$ with boundary consisting of $n$ topologically linked tori. The Euclidean path integral on $M_n$ defines a quantum state on the boundary, in the $n$-fold tensor product of the torus Hilbert space. We focus on the case where $M_n$ is the link-complement of some $n$-component link inside the three-sphere $S^3$. The entanglement entropies of the resulting states define framing-independent link invariants which are sensitive to the topology of the chosen link. For the Abelian theory at level $k$ ($G= U(1)_k$) we give a general formula for the entanglement entropy associated to an arbitrary $(m|n-m)$ partition of a generic $n$-component link into sub-links. The formula involves the number of solutions to certain Diophantine equations with coefficients related to the Gauss linking numbers (mod $k$) between the two sublinks. This formula connects simple concepts in quantum information theory, knot theory, and number theory, and shows that entanglement entropy between sublinks vanishes if and only if they have zero Gauss linking (mod $k$). For $G = SU(2)_k$, we study various two and three component links. We show that the 2-component Hopf link is maximally entangled, and hence analogous to a Bell pair, and that the Whitehead link, which has zero Gauss linking, nevertheless has entanglement entropy. Finally, we show that the Borromean rings have a "W-like" entanglement structure (i.e., tracing out one torus does not lead to a separable state), and give examples of other 3-component links which have "GHZ-like" entanglement (i.e., tracing out one torus does lead to a separable state).Comment: 37 pages, 19 figure

Interfaces and the extended Hilbert space of Chern-Simons theory

The low energy effective field theories of $(2+1)$ dimensional topological phases of matter provide powerful avenues for investigating entanglement in their ground states. In \cite{Fliss:2017wop} the entanglement between distinct Abelian topological phases was investigated through Abelian Chern-Simons theories equipped with a set of topological boundary conditions (TBCs). In the present paper we extend the notion of a TBC to non-Abelian Chern-Simons theories, providing an effective description for a class of gapped interfaces across non-Abelian topological phases. These boundary conditions furnish a defining relation for the extended Hilbert space of the quantum theory and allow the calculation of entanglement directly in the gauge theory. Because we allow for trivial interfaces, this includes a generic construction of the extended Hilbert space in any (compact) Chern-Simons theory quantized on a Riemann surface. Additionally, this provides a constructive and principled definition for the Hilbert space of effective ground states of gapped phases of matter glued along gapped interfaces. Lastly, we describe a generalized notion of surgery, adding a powerful tool from topological field theory to the gapped interface toolbox.Comment: 46 pages, many figures, 1 appendix; v2: fixed affiliations, minor revisions, added reference

Foundations for a successful stepfamily (2007)

"This guide was originally written by Sharon Leigh, Maridith Jackson and Janet A. Clark, Human Development and Family Studies Extension, University of Missouri-Columbia. Kim Leon, state specialist in Human Development and Family Studies, reviewed and revised this edition.""Information from Human Environmental Sciences Extension.""Human relations.""This guide has been adapted from a packet entitled 'Premarital Expectations: A Guide for Living in Stepfamilies,' by Marilyn Coleman and Jill Hastings.""Human Development and Family Studies Extension."New 6/00; Revised 4/07/Web

Modeling Regional Recycling and Remanufacturing Processes: From Micro to Macro

This paper reports progress in modeling recycling and remanufacturing processes within metropolitan regional economies at the micro and macro levels. The paper presents interim results from a multi-year, inter-institutional research project funded by the National Science Foundation. We identify a number of issues that have arisen from an in-depth industry level analysis of obsolete and waste products generated in the Seattle, WA and Atlanta, GA metro regions from waste electronics (e-waste) and carpet production and consumption. The two metro regions were selected for comparative analysis because Seattle is a recognized leader in e-waste recycling and sustainable development programs, while Atlanta has been slow to embrace recycling but is only 70 miles from the center of US carpet manufacturing (Dalton) and has an industry trade association that has set aggressive targets for carpet recycling and remanufacturing, e-waste forms the focus of this paper. We provide a detailed elaboration of processes at the micro-level, along with an enumeration of problems and solutions in characterizing these new industries, including an integration with environmental Life Cycle Assessment, and embedding the results in a macro-economic modeling framework

Recycling and Remanufacturing in Input-Output Models

Recycling and remanufacturing activities are gaining in importance, as a growing population and economy use up and wear out modern products, exhaust landfill capacity, threaten the environment, and discard potentially valuable and increasingly scarce resources. As an example, an estimated five billion pounds of carpet were sent to landfills in 2003 (CARE, 2003). Likewise, Americans discard computers, cell phones, LCDs and other electronic devices at an alarming rate. Estimates range from 100 to 250 million such items each year. As discard volumes rise and as resource scarcity becomes more critical, recycling, re-use, and remanufacturing have begun to take hold at ever more substantial scales. To understand the implications of these activities for economic development and sustainability, new methods of tracking their impacts must be developed. While at first blush it might be assumed that these activities could be modeled as could any other new industry, a number of characteristics peculiar to recycling and remanufacturing complicate the process. This paper enumerates a number of such dimensions of recycling, re-use, and remanufacturing, and lays out a scheme for extending the traditional approach

Interface Contributions to Topological Entanglement in Abelian Chern-Simons Theory

We study the entanglement entropy between (possibly distinct) topological phases across an interface using an Abelian Chern-Simons description with topological boundary conditions (TBCs) at the interface. From a microscopic point of view, these TBCs correspond to turning on particular gapping interactions between the edge modes across the interface. However, in studying entanglement in the continuum Chern-Simons description, we must confront the problem of non-factorization of the Hilbert space, which is a standard property of gauge theories. We carefully define the entanglement entropy by using an extended Hilbert space construction directly in the continuum theory. We show how a given TBC isolates a corresponding gauge invariant state in the extended Hilbert space, and hence compute the resulting entanglement entropy. We find that the sub-leading correction to the area law remains universal, but depends on the choice of topological boundary conditions. This agrees with the microscopic calculation of \cite{Cano:2014pya}. Additionally, we provide a replica path integral calculation for the entropy. In the case when the topological phases across the interface are taken to be identical, our construction gives a novel explanation of the equivalence between the left-right entanglement of (1+1)d Ishibashi states and the spatial entanglement of (2+1)d topological phases.Comment: 36 pages, 7 figures, two appendice

Sonoran Revival: Defending Tempe Butte

Tempe Butte is an anchor for its surrounding community in the city of Tempe, Arizona. The Native American culture, the Hohokam, once called Tempe Butte their home. When the prehistoric Hohokam eventually vanished from the area, they left behind remains of their origins and culture. As new settlers moved to the area of what is now Tempe, Arizona, they began encroaching on this archaeological site. The goal of this thesis is to defend Tempe Butte. Tempe’s rapid development has abused the butte, destroying and disturbing not only archeological artifacts, but bothering the native Sonoran Desert landscaping that once flourished in the area. This thesis proposes a building to protect, preserve, and bring awareness to the threatened state of Tempe Butte. The building educates the public, so they do not lose value of the diminishing remains of the prehistoric Hohokam and the Sonoran Desert landscape where they once lived

Police officer dynamic positioning for incident response and community presence

Police Forces are under a constant struggle to provide the best service possible with limited and decreasing resources. One area where service cannot be compromised is incident response. Resources which are assigned to incident response must provide attendance to the scene of an incident in a timely manner to protect the public . To ensure the possible demand is met maximum coverage location planning can be used so response officers are located in the most effective position for incident response. This is not the only concern of response officer positioning. Location planning must also consider targeting high crime areas, hotspots, as an officer presence in these areas can reduce crime levels and hence reduce future demand on the response officers. In this work hotspots are found using quadratic kernel density estimation with historical crime data. These are then used to produce optimal dynamic patrol routes for response officers to follow. Dynamic patrol routes result in reduced response times and reduced crime levels in hotspot areas resulting in a lower demand on response officers

Police response officer selection development of tool to aid the dispatch of police response officers

It’s essential the Police force use their resources to the highest possible efficiency to ensure adequate service in the face of major funding cuts. Automation of the response officer selection process can improve efficiency by assisting in selecting the most appropriate response officer to attend an incident. Currently dispatchers are tasked with selecting the appropriate response officers to send to incidents. Often these dispatchers ask response officers who can attend rather than making an informed decision. This may not result in the most efficient officer being selected to attend an incident. Providing a software tool to assist in the decision making process will decrease uncertainty in the decision and hence increase the likelihood of the most efficient officer being selected to attend an incident. The selection considers response time, availability, area coverage, driving standard and traffic conditions. The tool incorporates mapping, routing and decision making