Learners reconceptualising education: Widening participation through creative engagement?

This paper argues that engaging imaginatively with ways in which statutory and further education is provided and expanding the repertoire of possible transitions into higher education, is necessary for providers both in higher education and in the contexts and phases which precede study at this level. Fostering dispositions for creativity in dynamic engagement with educational technology together with the consideration of pedagogy, learning objects, inclusion, policy and the management of change, requires innovative provision to span the spaces between school, home, work and higher education learning. Reporting on The Aspire Pilot, a NESTA-funded initiative at The Open University, the paper offers the beginning of a theoretical frame for considering learning, learners and learning systems in the information age prioritizing learner agency. It will report emergent empirical findings from this inter-disciplinary project, with a significant e-dimension, which seeks to foster the creativity of 13-19 year olds in considering future learning systems, developing provocations for others to explore creative but grounded possibilities. It explores implications arising from this project for approaches that may facilitate widening participation in higher education

SAperI: Approaching Gender Gap Using Spatial Ability Training Week in High-School Context

The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure of a girls summer school, “SAperI – Spatial Ability per l’Ingegneria” (in English, “Knowledge – Spatial Ability for Engineering”), and to illustrate its impact on spatial ability development and future career preferences on those who participated in the week long summer school compared to a control group that did not participate.The 5 days school,organized by Politecnico di Torino (Italy), was included in a larger project addressing 17 years old high-school students. Thirtyseven girls actively took part in a summer school, while 167 students (both males and females) were tested as a controlled group.For those who attended the summer school, significant gains were observed in four measures of spatial ability - mental rotation, spatialvisualization, mental cutting and paper folding. For a minority of participants, scores on one of these tests, paper folding, were lower when measured at the end of the summer school but this was an exception. Furthermore, when tested several months after the summer school, the gains in spatial ability that were made during the course were maintained indicating stability over time with regard to the improvement in spatial ability.In terms of the experience of taking the course, the feedback provided was very positive and all but one participant would recommend the summer school to othergirls at this stage of high school

Dynamical stability of infinite homogeneous self-gravitating systems: application of the Nyquist method

We complete classical investigations concerning the dynamical stability of an infinite homogeneous gaseous medium described by the Euler-Poisson system or an infinite homogeneous stellar system described by the Vlasov-Poisson system (Jeans problem). To determine the stability of an infinite homogeneous stellar system with respect to a perturbation of wavenumber k, we apply the Nyquist method. We first consider the case of single-humped distributions and show that, for infinite homogeneous systems, the onset of instability is the same in a stellar system and in the corresponding barotropic gas, contrary to the case of inhomogeneous systems. We show that this result is true for any symmetric single-humped velocity distribution, not only for the Maxwellian. If we specialize on isothermal and polytropic distributions, analytical expressions for the growth rate, damping rate and pulsation period of the perturbation can be given. Then, we consider the Vlasov stability of symmetric and asymmetric double-humped distributions (two-stream stellar systems) and determine the stability diagrams depending on the degree of asymmetry. We compare these results with the Euler stability of two self-gravitating gaseous streams. Finally, we determine the corresponding stability diagrams in the case of plasmas and compare the results with self-gravitating systems

Measurement of the p-pbar -> Wgamma + X cross section at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV and WWgamma anomalous coupling limits

The WWgamma triple gauge boson coupling parameters are studied using p-pbar -> l nu gamma + X (l = e,mu) events at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV. The data were collected with the DO detector from an integrated luminosity of 162 pb^{-1} delivered by the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The cross section times branching fraction for p-pbar -> W(gamma) + X -> l nu gamma + X with E_T^{gamma} > 8 GeV and Delta R_{l gamma} > 0.7 is 14.8 +/- 1.6 (stat) +/- 1.0 (syst) +/- 1.0 (lum) pb. The one-dimensional 95% confidence level limits on anomalous couplings are -0.88 < Delta kappa_{gamma} < 0.96 and -0.20 < lambda_{gamma} < 0.20.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. D Rapid Communication

Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV using Kinematic Characteristics of Lepton + Jets Events

We present a measurement of the top quark pair ttbar production cross section in ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV using 230 pb**{-1} of data collected by the DO detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with one charged lepton (electron or muon), large missing transverse energy, and at least four jets, and extract the ttbar content of the sample based on the kinematic characteristics of the events. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV, we measure sigma(ttbar) = 6.7 {+1.4-1.3} (stat) {+1.6- 1.1} (syst) +/-0.4 (lumi) pb, in good agreement with the standard model prediction.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV using Lepton + Jets Events with Lifetime b-tagging

We present a measurement of the top quark pair ($t\bar{t}$) production cross section ($\sigma_{t\bar{t}}$) in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV using 230 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with one charged lepton (electron or muon), missing transverse energy, and jets in the final state. We employ lifetime-based b-jet identification techniques to further enhance the $t\bar{t}$ purity of the selected sample. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV, we measure $\sigma_{t\bar{t}}=8.6^{+1.6}_{-1.5}(stat.+syst.)\pm 0.6(lumi.)$ pb, in agreement with the standard model expectation.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables Submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Measurement of the ratios of the Z/G* + >= n jet production cross sections to the total inclusive Z/G* cross section in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present a study of events with Z bosons and jets produced at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider in ppbar collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data sample consists of nearly 14,000 Z/G* -> e+e- candidates corresponding to the integrated luminosity of 0.4 fb-1 collected using the D0 detector. Ratios of the Z/G* + >= n jet cross sections to the total inclusive Z/G* cross section have been measured for n = 1 to 4 jet events. Our measurements are found to be in good agreement with a next-to-leading order QCD calculation and with a tree-level QCD prediction with parton shower simulation and hadronization.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, slightly modified, submitted to Phys. Lett.

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Measurement of the Isolated Photon Cross Section in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV

The cross section for the inclusive production of isolated photons has been measured in p anti-p collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The photons span transverse momenta 23 to 300 GeV and have pseudorapidity |eta|<0.9. The cross section is compared with the results from two next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The theoretical predictions agree with the measurement within uncertainties.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys.Lett.

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters