5,015 research outputs found
Supporting Primary and Secondary Beginning Teachers Online: Key findings of the Education Alumni Support Project
During 2005, the Education Alumni Support Project (EdASP) (Maxwell, Smith, Baxter, Boyd, Harrington, Jenkins, Sargeant & Tamatea 2006) provided online support for University of New England (UNE) graduand, and later, graduate, teachers as they commenced their careers. The project was based on research which reported that many beginning teachers did not get the support they needed as permanent or contract workers, or, as casual, relief or support teachers, and that small scale trials had shown that online support could be effective. One third of beginning teachers who were alumni of UNE in 2004, reported they did not receive adequate or any mentoring. UNE web-based technologies provided the teachers and mentors with online environments for professional and social interaction, and resource sharing. We found that support was especially sought by the project participants in their first school term, and there were differences in the levels of online support sought by secondary and primary beginning teachers. The project raises implications for on-going systemic support for beginning teachers, the issue of transition from students to teachers, as well as questions about teacher education students’ preparation. This paper provides the key findings of the project. Detailed description of the project structure, data collection and data analysis are available in Maxwell et al. (2006)
Numerical Bifurcation Analysis of Conformal Formulations of the Einstein Constraints
The Einstein constraint equations have been the subject of study for more
than fifty years. The introduction of the conformal method in the 1970's as a
parameterization of initial data for the Einstein equations led to increased
interest in the development of a complete solution theory for the constraints,
with the theory for constant mean curvature (CMC) spatial slices and closed
manifolds completely developed by 1995. The first general non-CMC existence
result was establish by Holst et al. in 2008, with extensions to rough data by
Holst et al. in 2009, and to vacuum spacetimes by Maxwell in 2009. The non-CMC
theory remains mostly open; moreover, recent work of Maxwell on specific
symmetry models sheds light on fundamental non-uniqueness problems with the
conformal method as a parameterization in non-CMC settings. In parallel with
these mathematical developments, computational physicists have uncovered
surprising behavior in numerical solutions to the extended conformal thin
sandwich formulation of the Einstein constraints. In particular, numerical
evidence suggests the existence of multiple solutions with a quadratic fold,
and a recent analysis of a simplified model supports this conclusion. In this
article, we examine this apparent bifurcation phenomena in a methodical way,
using modern techniques in bifurcation theory and in numerical homotopy
methods. We first review the evidence for the presence of bifurcation in the
Hamiltonian constraint in the time-symmetric case. We give a brief introduction
to the mathematical framework for analyzing bifurcation phenomena, and then
develop the main ideas behind the construction of numerical homotopy, or
path-following, methods in the analysis of bifurcation phenomena. We then apply
the continuation software package AUTO to this problem, and verify the presence
of the fold with homotopy-based numerical methods.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Final revision for publication, added material
on physical implication
Is Quantum Mechanics Compatible with an Entirely Deterministic Universe?
A b s t r a c t It will be argued that 1) the Bell inequalities are not
equivalent with those inequalities derived by Pitowsky and others that indicate
the Kolmogorovity of a probability model, 2) the original Bell inequalities are
irrelevant to both the question of whether or not quantum mechanics is a
Kolmogorovian theory as well as the problem of determinism, whereas 3) the
Pitowsky type inequalities are not violated by quantum mechanics, hence 4)
quantum mechanics is a Kolmogorovian probability theory, therefore, 5) it is
compatible with an entirely deterministic universe.Comment: 15 pages, (compressed and uuencoded) Postscript (188 kb), preprint
94/0
On New Physical Reality (on Psi--ether)
It is shown that there exists a new physical reality -- the --ether.
All the achievements of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory are due to
the fact that both the theories include the influence of --ether on the
physical processes occurring in the Universe. Physics of the XXth century was
first of all the physics of --ether.Comment: 17 pages, LaTe
A quantum-mechanical Maxwell's demon
A Maxwell's demon is a device that gets information and trades it in for
thermodynamic advantage, in apparent (but not actual) contradiction to the
second law of thermodynamics. Quantum-mechanical versions of Maxwell's demon
exhibit features that classical versions do not: in particular, a device that
gets information about a quantum system disturbs it in the process. In
addition, the information produced by quantum measurement acts as an additional
source of thermodynamic inefficiency. This paper investigates the properties of
quantum-mechanical Maxwell's demons, and proposes experimentally realizable
models of such devices.Comment: 13 pages, Te
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