Making Banners and Bridges: Working Together on Global Themes

This paper is an interpretivist study of joint work between two groups of learners, one group from a Higher Education institution and the other from a small independent organisation. This collaboration provided an opening for the groups to work together from January to March in 2007 and in the same period in 2009. Before 2007, one week in the Chevening programme had been dedicated to examining community development organisations and policies in Scotland. The CD team in the Department of Adult and Continuing Education (DACE) had initially offered an annual lecture and workshop on community development and the sessions had been well received. So it was agreed in 2007 that it would be beneficial if we could include the CD students as they had much in common with the Fellows in terms of their work and studies. So both programmes were synchronised to enable the students and Fellows to work together. In 2007 the learners included the student/practitioners of the Bachelor of Community Learning and Development (BCLD) within the University of Glasgow and the Fellows of the Chevening Scholarship programme hosted and ran by the Active Learning Centre (ALC). (The BCLD was later replaced by the Bachelor of Arts in Community Development (BACD).) The joint work had gone well in 2007 so the tutors decided they would collaborate again in 2009 so the BACD student/practitioners and a different group of Fellows shared another learning experience. The University students in both the BCLD and BACD courses attended a work-based degree programme which is for people with substantial, current practice working in the community in either a paid or unpaid capacity. The Chevening programme, which has run since 2004, included ‘mid-career professionals from a variety of both Government and non-governmental organisations from all over the world’ Active Learning Centre (2003). During their time in the UK, the Fellows take part in a series of visits, lectures, workshops, roundtable discussions and placements. The collaboration had at the heart of the work some very straightforward aims which were value driven and about the benefits of mutual and reciprocal teaching and learning, supported by meaningful discussion and dialogue. The basic impetus was for the two groups of learners to come together to explore global issues from different perspectives. The groups were also given an opportunity to learn about each other’s work in civil society and governance. The aims of this partnership were simply to • to gain mutual learning • to bring the visitors into the host communities • to take the University out to relevant communities • to create sustainable relationships

Resolving 3D Disk Orientation using High-Resolution Images: New Constraints on Circumgalactic Gas Inflows

We constrain gas inflow speeds in star-forming galaxies with color gradients consistent with inside-out disk growth. Our method combines new measurements of disk orientation with previously described circumgalactic absorption in background quasar spectra. Two quantities, a position angle and an axis ratio, describe the projected shape of each galactic disk on the sky, leaving an ambiguity about which side of the minor axis is tipped toward the observer. This degeneracy regarding the 3D orientation of disks has compromised previous efforts to measure gas inflow speeds. We present HST and Keck/LGSAO imaging that resolves the spiral structure in five galaxies at redshift $z\approx0.2$. We determine the sign of the disk inclination for four galaxies, under the assumption that spiral arms trail the rotation. We project models for both radial infall in the disk plane and circular orbits onto each quasar sightline. We compare the resulting line-of-sight velocities to the observed velocity range of Mg II absorption in spectra of background quasars, which intersect the disk plane at radii between 69 and 115 kpc. For two sightlines, we constrain the maximum radial inflow speeds as 30-40 km s$^{-1}$. We also rule out a velocity component from radial inflow in one sightline, suggesting that the structures feeding gas to these growing disks do not have unity covering factor. We recommend appropriate selection criteria for building larger samples of galaxy--quasar pairs that produce orientations sensitive to constraining inflow properties.Comment: 15 pages with 8 figures and 2 tables; accepted for publication in Ap

Ceramic wiring board increases packaging density of electronic modules

Ceramic multilayer wiring board interconnects large scale integration /LSI/ modules which dissipate nearly 2W/cc. Extremely high packaging density is possible by application of alumina cover hermetically sealed to board. Signal interconnections are completely dependent on transfer heat between layers

Killing and replacing queen-laid eggs: low cost of worker policing in the honey bee

Worker honeybees, Apis mellifera, police each other’s reproduction by killing worker-laid eggs. Previous experiments demonstrated that worker policing is effective, killing most (∼98%) worker-laid eggs. However, many queen-laid eggs were also killed (∼50%) suggesting that effective policing may have high costs. In these previous experiments, eggs were transferred using forceps into test cells, mostly into unrelated discriminator colonies. We measured both the survival of unmanipulated queen-laid eggs and the proportion of removal errors that were rectified by the queen laying a new egg. Across 2 days of the 3-day egg stage, only 9.6% of the queen-laid eggs in drone cells and 4.1% in worker cells were removed in error. When queen-laid eggs were removed from cells, 85% from drone cells and 61% from worker cells were replaced within 3 days. Worker policing in the honeybee has a high benefit to policing workers because workers are more related to the queen’s sons (brothers, r = 0.25) than sister workers’ sons (0.15). This study shows that worker policing also has a low cost in terms of the killing of queen-laid eggs, as only a small proportion of queen-laid eggs are killed, most of which are rapidly replaced

The nature of operating flight loads and their effect on propulsion system structures

Past diagnostics studies revealed the primary causes of performance deterioration of high by-pass turbofan engines to be flight loads, erosion, and thermal distortion. The various types of airplane loads that are imposed on the engine throughout the lifetime of an airplane are examined. These include flight loads from gusts and maneuvers and ground loads from takeoff, landing, and taxi conditions. Clarification is made in definitions of the airframer's limit and ultimate design loads and the engine manufacturer's operating design loads. Finally, the influence of these loads on the propulsion system structures is discussed

DSN human factors project

The project plan was to hold focus groups to identify the factors influencing the ease of use characteristics of software and to bond the problem. A questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate those factors which were more appropriately measured with that method. The performance oriented factors were analyzed and relationships hypothesized. The hypotheses were put to test in the experimental phase of the project. In summary, the initial analysis indicates that there is an initial performance effect favoring computer controlled dialogue but the advantage fades fast as operators become experienced. The user documentation style is seen to have a significant effect on performance. The menu and prompt command formats are preferred by inexperienced operators. The short form mnemonic is least favored. There is no clear best command format but the short form mnemonic is clearly the worst

Exact valence bond entanglement entropy and probability distribution in the XXX spin chain and the Potts model

By relating the ground state of Temperley-Lieb hamiltonians to partition functions of 2D statistical mechanics systems on a half plane, and using a boundary Coulomb gas formalism, we obtain in closed form the valence bond entanglement entropy as well as the valence bond probability distribution in these ground states. We find in particular that for the XXX spin chain, the number N_c of valence bonds connecting a subsystem of size L to the outside goes, in the thermodynamic limit, as = (4/pi^2) ln L, disproving a recent conjecture that this should be related with the von Neumann entropy, and thus equal to 1/(3 ln 2) ln L. Our results generalize to the Q-state Potts model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Toward a unified PNT, Part 1: Complexity and context: Key challenges of multisensor positioning

The next generation of navigation and positioning systems must provide greater accuracy and reliability in a range of challenging environments to meet the needs of a variety of mission-critical applications. No single navigation technology is robust enough to meet these requirements on its own, so a multisensor solution is required. Known environmental features, such as signs, buildings, terrain height variation, and magnetic anomalies, may or may not be available for positioning. The system could be stationary, carried by a pedestrian, or on any type of land, sea, or air vehicle. Furthermore, for many applications, the environment and host behavior are subject to change. A multi-sensor solution is thus required. The expert knowledge problem is compounded by the fact that different modules in an integrated navigation system are often supplied by different organizations, who may be reluctant to share necessary design information if this is considered to be intellectual property that must be protected