Compact Stars, Heavy Ion Collisions, and Possible Lessons For QCD at Finite Densities

Large neutron star masses as the recently measured $1.97\pm0.04$ M$_\odot$ for PSR J1614-2230 provide a valuable lower limit on the stiffness of the equation of state of dense, nuclear and quark matter. Complementary, the analysis of the elliptic flow in heavy ion collisions suggests an upper limit on the EoS stiffness. We illustrate how this dichotomy permits to constrain parameters of effective EoS models which otherwise could not be derived unambiguously from first principles.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 1 table Proceedings contribution for 'HIC for FAIR Workshop and XXVIII Max Born Symposium Satellite meeting for QM 2011' in Wroc{\l}aw, Polan

From Vision to Apocalypse: the Poetic Subject in Recent Mexican Poetry

Over the last two decades there have been significant changes in the poetic subject. After the colloquial realism of the fifties and sixties, in which the poetic subject acted as witness to his or her time or spoke as a collective subject, there has emerged, particularly in the poetry of José Emilio Pacheco, a poetry in which the subject assumes an impersonal voice. This poetry questions originality, privileging appropriation, parody and pastiche while becoming increasingly skeptical and apocalyptic

Debating Identity: Urban Indians in the Healthcare System

In recent years, the public health sector has recommended that healthcare practitioners become culturally competent in order to reduce health disparities in minority groups. It was reported later in the Surgeon General\u27s Report (1999) on mental health, that culture shapes the healthcare experience for minority groups and in turn may influence the treatment course. Cultural competence models have been proposed in conjunction with the development of ethnic-specific mental health clinics, where practitioners and patients are ethnically similar, and programs are designed with the groups’ unique cultural needs in mind. This poses a particularly unique dilemma for urban Indians as their identity has come under social and legal scrutiny, which resulted in a debate over eligibility for federally administered health services. In a justification to cut funding for urban Indian health centers, the current administration has put their existence into question, saying that they offer duplicate mental health services that can be found elsewhere in the community. In light of the current debates over continued funding, I examined cultural competence practices and health treatment at the Missoula Indian Center, an urban Indian center with a staff of eleven and a client base of just under 1,500 people. I interviewed all of the employees and counselors at the Indian center, as well as conducted ethnographic observation of client/provider interactions. Eight of the eleven staff members are American Indian and most consider themselves urban Indian, therefore I was able to gain an understanding of cultural competence practices through the lens of both ethnic urban Indian and non-Indian providers. The data suggests that urban Indian centers provide necessary services for transitioning American Indians, yet there is not a conclusive argument that the cultural component is the primary force making these centers necessary and successful. Some data suggested that the availability of services and cultural resources make these centers a primary choice for urban Indians seeking mental health care

The Stories of Middle School Science Teachers’ Teaching Evolution: A Narrative Inquiry

Avoidance of the theory of evolution occurs in science classrooms due to levels of dissonance from challenges that persist in the United States from conflicting worldviews and a lack of support regarding the topic of evolution. The purpose of this qualitative study with a narrative inquiry design was to explore the stories of science teachers teaching evolution in middle schools. This study adopted a qualitative method with a narrative inquiry design. Participants were 10 public middle school science teachers with at least 10 years of science teaching experience in urban, suburban, and rural areas of the Pacific Northwest. The central research question of this study was: What are the stories of science teachers teaching evolution in middle schools? The results disclosed eight major themes: (a) intrinsic motivation from science authors, childhood interests, and family members; (b) microevolution as a common teaching approach to teach evolution; (c) macroevolution as an uncommon teaching approach for teaching evolution; (d) hominins as an uncommon teaching approach for teaching evolution; (e) external challenges of religious conflict among students, colleagues, and parents; (f) internal challenges with colleagues and students; (g) support from administrators and colleagues; and (h) need for support by administrators and colleagues. The findings showed a need for teacher training courses and professional development opportunities. Recommendations for future research are included

Cold quarks in medium: an equation of state

We derive a compact, semi-algebraic expression for the cold quark matter equation of state (EoS) in a covariant model that exhibits coincident deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoring transitions in-medium. Along the way we obtain algebraic expressions for: the number- and scalar-density distributions in both the confining Nambu and deconfined Wigner phases; and the vacuum-pressure difference between these phases, which defines a bag constant. The confining interaction materially alters the distribution functions from those of a Fermi gas and consequently has a significant impact on the model's thermodynamic properties, which is apparent in the EoS.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

On sets of rational functions which locally represent all of Q\mathbb{Q}

We investigate finite sets of rational functions $\{ f_{1},f_{2}, \dots, f_{r} \}$ defined over some number field $K$ satisfying that any $t_{0} \in K$ is a $K_{p}$-value of one of the functions $f_{i}$ for almost all primes $p$ of $K$. We give strong necessary conditions on the shape of functions appearing in a minimal set with this property, as well as numerous concrete examples showing that these necessary conditions are in a way also close to sufficient. We connect the problem to well-studied concepts such as intersective polynomials and arithmetically exceptional functions