GLAST: physics goals and instrument status

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is a space-based observatory scheduled to launch in October 2007 with two instruments: (1) the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM), sensitive to photon energies between 8 keV and 25 MeV and optimized to detect gamma-ray bursts, and (2) the Large Area Telescope (LAT), sensitive to gamma rays between ~20 MeV and 300 GeV and designed to survey the gamma-ray sky with unprecedented sensitivity. We describe the LAT and the GBM. We then focus on the LAT's capabilities for studying active galactic nuclei.Comment: to appear in Proceedings of TeV Particle Astrophysics II, 28-31 August 2006, Madison, WI, US

Information Literacy: Developing Partnerships Across Library Types

This article describes a grant-funded project with the final goal of creating information literacy collaborative partnerships among academic, school, and public libraries. The objectives of the grant as well as an overall description of the project are stated. The emphasis of the article is on the process followed to create the collaborative partnerships and the partnerships created as a result of the grant

Temporary Programs to Extend Unemployment Compensation

[From Summary] The federal/state unemployment compensation (UC) system is designed to provide temporary and partial wage replacement to workers who have become involuntarily unemployed. UC also helps to stabilize the economy by providing unemployed workers with additional purchasing power, which serves as an economic stimulus when unemployment rises during recessions. The UC system generally provides sufficient duration of benefits during periods of economic prosperity, as most UC beneficiaries experience fewer weeks of unemployment than their maximum entitlements and return to work before their benefit rights are exhausted. However, during periods of economic decline, people tend to remain unemployed longer because of the greater difficulty in finding new jobs, and a rising proportion of jobless workers exhaust UC benefits without finding new work. Thus, programs have been established to increase the number of weeks of assistance during periods of high unemployment

Partnership and the Politics of Care: Advocates' Role in Passing and Implementing California's Law to Extend Foster Care

This report traces the history of the California's Fostering Connections to Success Act legislation from its introduction in the California State Assembly, through its passage and signing, and ultimately to its innovative and extensive implementation planning process. The report aims to document the California experience, highlighting its successes and challenges, so that other states may benefit, potentially smoothing the legislative and implementation processes there. Beyond telling the story of extended care, this report also focuses on two other issues. The first is the strong role played by a group of stakeholders (e.g., advocates, foundations, county administrators) in passing this bill and seeing it through implementation planning. We find that their central involvement was a result of their own desire to see the policy through to implementation, the limited capacity of state government agencies to implement such complex legislation, and the willingness of foundations to help fund implementation planning. The second is the degree to which research evidence was used in both the legislative and implementation planning phases. Our findings about use of evidence indicate that for research to be effective in shaping legislative decisions, it needs to be more timely and geared to policymakers' concerns. In particular, research on specific state-level contexts is greatly valued. For legislation that concerns sympathetic populations, testimonial or discursive evidence can be just as effective with legislators as research evidence. Moreover, in times of budgetary constraint, research evidence about cost effectiveness may be as important as research evidence about program or policy effectiveness

Raise Your Profile: Build Your Program

To raise the library\u27s profile within the campus community, it is critical to create a strategic plan and align library goals with those of the university. At George Washington University\u27s Gelman Library, the instruction librarians gained internal and external support to hire two new instruction librarians to better support collaboration with the new university writing program. The library then used assessment data to successfully advocate for an additional two positions

Online Self-testing Resources Prepared by Peer Tutors as a Formative Assessment Tool in Pharmacology Courses

Objective. To assess the effectiveness of optional online quizzes written by peer tutors in a pharmacology course for doctor of pharmacy students. Methods. Online quizzes were written by peer tutors for second-year pharmacy students. Quizzes reflected the material taught during lecture and were in a format similar to that of the examinations. Data related to performance on each quiz and each examination were collected throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, students and peer tutors were surveyed to gather information on the utility and success of the quizzes. Results. Students taking online quizzes performed significantly better on examinations than those who did not take quizzes. In addition, students received higher scores on examinations than when practicing with the quizzes. Surveys suggest that students liked the quizzes and felt they increased their confidence and performance on examinations. Conclusion. The quizzes were beneficial to student performance on examinations as well as student perception of performance and confidence going into the examinations. Quizzes were also beneficial learning experiences for peer tutors

Strong late-time circumstellar interaction in the peculiar supernova iPTF14hls

We present a moderate-resolution spectrum of the peculiar Type II supernova iPTF14hls taken on day 1153 after discovery. This spectrum reveals the clear signature of shock interaction with dense circumstellar material (CSM). We suggest that this CSM interaction may be an important clue for understanding the extremely unusual photometric and spectroscopic evolution seen over the first 600 days of iPTF14hls. The late-time spectrum shows a double-peaked intermediate-width H-alpha line indicative of expansion speeds around 1000 km/s, with the double-peaked shape hinting at a disc-like geometry in the CSM. If the CSM was highly asymmetric, perhaps in a disc or torus that was ejected from the star 3-6 years prior to explosion, then the CSM interaction could have been overrun and hidden below the SN ejecta photosphere from a wide range of viewing angles. In that case, CSM interaction luminosity would have been thermalized well below the photosphere, possibly sustaining the high luminosity without exhibiting the traditional observational signatures of strong CSM interaction (narrow H-alpha emission and X-rays). Variations in density structure of the CSM could account for the multiple rebrightenings of the lightcurve. We propose that enveloped CSM interaction as seen in some recent SNe, rather than an entirely new explosion mechanism, may be adequate to explain the peculiar evolution of iPTF14hls.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to MNRAS with referee respons