Rank rigidity for CAT(0) cube complexes

We prove that any group acting essentially without a fixed point at infinity on an irreducible finite-dimensional CAT(0) cube complex contains a rank one isometry. This implies that the Rank Rigidity Conjecture holds for CAT(0) cube complexes. We derive a number of other consequences for CAT(0) cube complexes, including a purely geometric proof of the Tits Alternative, an existence result for regular elements in (possibly non-uniform) lattices acting on cube complexes, and a characterization of products of trees in terms of bounded cohomology.Comment: 39 pages, 4 figures. Revised version according to referee repor

Defining the industrial and engineering management professional profile: a longitudinal study based on job advertisements

The engineering professional profiles have been discussed by several branches of the engineering field. On the one hand, this discussion helps to understand the professional practice and contributes to the specification of the competences that are suitable for each function and company culture. On the other hand, it is an essential starting point for the definition of curricula in engineering schools. Thus, this study aims to characterize, in an innovative way based on job advertisements, the demand for competences and areas of practice for Industrial Engineering and Management contributing for the definition of a professional profile. This characterization is based on the analysis of 1391 job advertisements, collected during seven years from a Portuguese newspaper. The data analysis takes into account the job description in which two categories were considered: areas of professional practice (e.g. project management) and transversal competences (e.g. teamwork). Considering the total number of job advertisements, it was possible to identify 1,962 cumulative references for 11 professional practice areas and 5,261 cumulative references for transversal competences. The contribution of this study lies on the identification of the main areas of practice and the main transversal competences demanded by employers.This work was partially funded by COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013

Residual Finiteness Growths of Virtually Special Groups

Let $G$ be a virtually special group. Then the residual finiteness growth of $G$ is at most linear. This result cannot be found by embedding $G$ into a special linear group. Indeed, the special linear group $\text{SL}_k(\mathbb{Z})$, for $k > 2$, has residual finiteness growth $n^{k-1}$.Comment: Updated version contains minor changes incorporating referee comments/suggestions and a simplified proof of Lemma 4.

Training in crisis communication and volcanic eruption forecasting:Design and evaluation of an authentic role-play simulation

We present an interactive, immersive, authentic role-play simulation designed to teach tertiary geoscience students in New Zealand to forecast and mitigate a volcanic crisis. Half of the participating group (i.e., the Geoscience Team) focuses on interpreting real volcano monitoring data (e.g., seismographs, gas output etc.) while the other half of the group (i.e., the Emergency Management Team) forecasts and manages likely impacts, and communicates emergency response decisions and advice to local communities. These authentic learning experiences were aimed at enhancing upper-year undergraduate students’ transferable and geologic reasoning skills. An important goal of the simulation was specifically to improve students’ science communication through interdisciplinary team discussions, jointly prepared, and delivered media releases, and real-time, high-pressure, press conferences. By playing roles, students experienced the specific responsibilities of a professional within authentic organisational structures. A qualitative, design-based educational research study was carried out to assess the overall student experience and self-reported learning of skills. A pilot and four subsequent iterations were investigated. Results from this study indicate that students found these role-plays to be a highly challenging and engaging learning experience and reported improved skills. Data from classroom observations and interviews indicate that the students valued the authenticity and challenging nature of the role-play although personal experiences and team dynamics (within, and between the teams) varied depending on the students’ background, preparedness, and personality. During early iterations, observation and interviews from students and instructors indicate that some of the goals of the simulation were not fully achieved due to: A) lack of preparedness, B) insufficient time to respond appropriately, C) appropriateness of roles and team structure, and D) poor communication skills. Small modifications to the design of Iterations 3 and 4 showed an overall improvement in the students’ skills and goals being reached. A communication skills instrument (SPCC) was used to measure self-reported pre- and post- communication competence in the last two iterations. Results showed that this instrument recorded positive shifts in all categories of self-perceived abilities, the largest shifts seen in students who participated in press conferences. Future research will be aimed at adapting this curricula to new volcanic and earthquake scenarios

Minimal cubings

We combine ideas of Scott and Swarup on good position for almost invariant subsets of a group with ideas of Sageev on constructing cubings from such sets. We construct cubings which are more canonical than in Sageev's original construction. We also show that almost invariant sets can be chosen to be in very good position

Nonlinear Dynamics and Plasma Transport

This progress report details work done on a program in nonlinear dynamical aspects of plasma turbulence and transport funded by DOE since 1989. This program has been in cooperation with laboratories in theUSSR [now Russia and the Confederation of Independent States (CIS)]. The purpose of this program has been: To promote the utilization of recent pathbreaking developments in nonlinear science in plasma turbulence and transport. To promote cooperative scientific investigations between the US and CIS in the related areas of nonlinear science and plasma turbulence and transport. In the work reported in our progress report, we have studied simple models which are motivated by observation on actual fusion devices. The models focus on the important physical processes without incorporating the complexity of the geometry of real devices. This allows for a deeper analysis and understanding of the system both analytically and numerically