2,153 research outputs found
Using a self-reflective journal to enhance science communication
In new times the ability to self-evaluate and reflect on one's own actions in communicating with others will be a crucial workplace skill. An innovative peer tutoring course for academic credit, by university science students in high schools, will be presented, with a review on its ability to develop a link between school tutoring and workplace communication. Course content relates to broad issues of science literacy, science communication and group situations and peer interactions. Students complete on-campus lecture and workshop component, and do 20-30 hours of in-school tutoring; assessment includes an examination, assignments in the form of journals, and a personal learning log of experiences.
Findings from the first two years of the course, based on data sources of students' journal entries and responses to the end of unit evaluations (1996, n = 21; 1997, n = 21) are presented. Analysis focuses on the development of reflective skills and students' awareness of their personal power in detecting and solving problems and developing strategies to promote two way communication. The use of self-evaluation through reflective journals was found to enhance the effectiveness of tutoring. Implications for developing the 'human side' of science will be discussed, and the appropriateness of the course to develop these often under-represented aspects of science
Local freedom in the gravitational field revisited
Maartens {\it et al.}\@ gave a covariant characterization, in a 1+3 formalism
based on a perfect fluid's velocity, of the parts of the first derivatives of
the curvature tensor in general relativity which are ``locally free'', i.e. not
pointwise determined by the fluid energy momentum and its derivative. The full
decomposition of independent curvature derivative components given in earlier
work on the spinor approach to the equivalence problem enables analogous
general results to be stated for any order: the independent matter terms can
also be characterized. Explicit relations between the two sets of results are
obtained. The 24 Maartens {\it et al.} locally free data are shown to
correspond to the quantities in the spinor approach, and the
fluid terms are similarly related to the remaining 16 independent quantities in
the first derivatives of the curvature.Comment: LaTeX. 13 pp. To be submitted to Class. Quant. Gra
Spectroscopy from 2 to 200 keV
The astrophysical processes responsible for line and continuum emission in the spectra range 2 keV to 200 keV are examined from the viewpoint of designing a spectrometer which would operate in this regime. Phenomena considered include fluorescent line radiation in X-ray binaries, magnetically shifted iron lines and cyclotron emission from neutron star surfaces, line emission from cosmically abundant elements in thermal plasmas, and nuclear deexcitation lines in fresh nucleosynthetically produced matter. An instrument consisting of a approximately 10 sq cm array of planar germanium detectors surrounded by a large sodium-iodide anticoincidence shield is described and projected background rates and sensitivities are considered. A sample observing program for a two-day shuttle-based mission is included as an example of the wide range of scientific questions which could be addressed by such an instrument
Segre Types of Symmetric Two-tensors in n-Dimensional Spacetimes
Three propositions about Jordan matrices are proved and applied to
algebraically classify the Ricci tensor in n-dimensional Kaluza-Klein-type
spacetimes. We show that the possible Segre types are [1,1...1], [21...1],
[31\ldots 1], [z\bar{z}1...1] and degeneracies thereof. A set of canonical
forms for the Segre types is obtained in terms of semi-null bases of vectors.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, replaced due to a LaTex erro
Equivalence of three-dimensional spacetimes
A solution to the equivalence problem in three-dimensional gravity is given
and a practically useful method to obtain a coordinate invariant description of
local geometry is presented. The method is a nontrivial adaptation of Karlhede
invariant classification of spacetimes of general relativity. The local
geometry is completely determined by the curvature tensor and a finite number
of its covariant derivatives in a frame where the components of the metric are
constants. The results are presented in the framework of real two-component
spinors in three-dimensional spacetimes, where the algebraic classifications of
the Ricci and Cotton-York spinors are given and their isotropy groups and
canonical forms are determined. As an application we discuss Goedel-type
spacetimes in three-dimensional General Relativity. The conditions for local
space and time homogeneity are derived and the equivalence of three-dimensional
Goedel-type spacetimes is studied and the results are compared with previous
works on four-dimensional Goedel-type spacetimes.Comment: 13 pages - content changes and corrected typo
Early-expressed chemokines predict kidney immunopathology in experimental disseminated Candida albicans infections
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL)Peer reviewedPublisher PD
A cosmological model in Weyl-Cartan spacetime
We present a cosmological model for early stages of the universe on the basis
of a Weyl-Cartan spacetime. In this model, torsion and
nonmetricity are proportional to the vacuum polarization.
Extending earlier work of one of us (RT), we discuss the behavior of the cosmic
scale factor and the Weyl 1-form in detail. We show how our model fits into the
more general framework of metric-affine gravity (MAG).Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, typos corrected, uses IOP style fil
On limits of spacetimes -- a coordinate-free approach
A coordinate-free approach to limits of spacetimes is developed. The limits
of the Schwarzschild metric as the mass parameter tends to 0 or are
studied, extending previous results. Besides the known Petrov type D and 0
limits, three vacuum plane-wave solutions of Petrov type N are found to be
limits of the Schwarzschild spacetime.Comment: 19 p
Automorphisms of Real 4 Dimensional Lie Algebras and the Invariant Characterization of Homogeneous 4-Spaces
The automorphisms of all 4-dimensional, real Lie Algebras are presented in a
comprehensive way. Their action on the space of , real, symmetric
and positive definite, matrices, defines equivalence classes which are used for
the invariant characterization of the 4-dimensional homogeneous spaces which
possess an invariant basis.Comment: LaTeX2e, 23 pages, 2 Tables. To appear in Journal of Physics A:
Mathematical & Genera
Uniqueness of the Trautman--Bondi mass
It is shown that the only functionals, within a natural class, which are
monotonic in time for all solutions of the vacuum Einstein equations admitting
a smooth ``piece'' of conformal null infinity Scri, are those depending on the
metric only through a specific combination of the Bondi `mass aspect' and other
next--to--leading order terms in the metric. Under the extra condition of
passive BMS invariance, the unique such functional (up to a multiplicative
factor) is the Trautman--Bondi energy. It is also shown that this energy
remains well-defined for a wide class of `polyhomogeneous' metrics.Comment: latex, 33 page
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