A Comparison of Teaching Models in the West and in China

Models of teaching commonly used in the West and in China are analyzed and compared, using an analytical approach that systematically considers different aspects of the models. The purpose of the exploration is three-fold: (a) to create better understanding of both Chinese and Western models, for mutual insight and to strengthen the development of pedagogical theory building in China; (b) to guide a joint project between the Netherlands and China relative to the development computer-related learning resources for China; and (c) to contribute to better overall understanding of how instructional resources can be adapted for use in both Western and Chinese situations. The analysis provides a contribution for each of these goals

The Latent Heat of Single Flavor Color Superconductivity in a Magnetic Field

We calculate the energy release associated with first-order phase transition between different types of single flavor color superconductivity in a magnetic field.Comment: Updated version accepted by PRD, with minor change

Phase slip in a superfluid Fermi gas near a Feshbach resonance

In this paper, we study the properties of a phase slip in a superfluid Fermi gas near a Feshbach resonance. The phase slip can be generated by the phase imprinting method. Below the superfluid transition temperature, it appears as a dip in the density profile, and becomes more pronounced when the temperature is lowered. Therefore the phase slip can provide a direct evidence of the superfluid state. The condensation energy of the superfluid state can be extracted from the density profile of the phase slip, due to the unitary properties of the Fermi gas near the resonance. The width of the phase slip is proportional to the square root of the difference between the transition temperature and the temperature. The signature of the phase slip in the density profile becomes more robust across the BCS-BEC crossover.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, the density profile of a phase slip under experimental conditions was calculate

Optimal Drug Policy in Low-Income Neighborhoods

Part of the debate over the control of drug activity in cities is concerned with the effectiveness of implementing demand- versus supply-side drug policies. This paper is motivated by the relative lack of research providing formal economic underpinning for the implementation of either policy. We construct a simple model of drug activity, in which the drug price and the distribution of population in a community are determined according to a career choice rule and a predetermined drug demand. Three potential government objectives are considered. We find that both demand- and supply-side policies have theoretical support under different community conditions. While the demand-side policy discourages active drug sellers, the supply-side policy has an additional drug-dealing replacement effect on inducing potential entry of drug dealers. In low-income neighborhoods, demand-side policy is more effective if the drug problem is more sever or if the government objective is to deter dealer entry or to promote community's aggregate income rather than minimizing active drug selling.

Search for Heavy Right-Handed Neutrinos at the LHC and Beyond in the Same-Sign Same-Flavor Leptons Final State

In this study we explore the LHC's Run II potential to the discovery of heavy Majorana neutrinos, with luminosities between $30$ and $3000$ fb$^{-1}$ in the $l^{\pm}l^{\pm}j~j$ final state. Given that there exist many models for neutrino mass generation, even within the Type I seesaw framework, we use a simplified model approach and study two simple extensions to the Standard Model, one with a single heavy Majorana neutrino, singlet under the Standard Model gauge group, and a limiting case of the left-right symmetric model. We then extend the analysis to a future hadron collider running at $100$ TeV center of mass energies. This extrapolation in energy allows us to study the relative importance of the resonant production versus gauge boson fusion processes in the study of Majorana neutrinos at hadron colliders. We analyze and propose different search strategies designed to maximize the discovery potential in either the resonant production or the gauge boson fusion modes

Dynamics of opinion formation in a small-world network

The dynamical process of opinion formation within a model using a local majority opinion updating rule is studied numerically in networks with the small-world geometrical property. The network is one in which shortcuts are added to randomly chosen pairs of nodes in an underlying regular lattice. The presence of a small number of shortcuts is found to shorten the time to reach a consensus significantly. The effects of having shortcuts in a lattice of fixed spatial dimension are shown to be analogous to that of increasing the spatial dimension in regular lattices. The shortening of the consensus time is shown to be related to the shortening of the mean shortest path as shortcuts are added. Results can also be translated into that of the dynamics of a spin system in a small-world network.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Distinguishing technicolor models via tt-bar productions at polarized photon colliders

We study top quark pair productions at a polarized photon collider from an e(+)e(-) linear collider (LC) in various improved technicolor model, namely, the one-family walking technicolor model, the top-color-assisted technicolor model, and the top-color-assisted multiscale technicolor model. Recent constraint on the top-pion mass from the precision data of R(b) is considered. It is shown that, considering only the statistical errors, a polarized photon collider from a 500 GeV LC with an integrated luminosity of 500 inverse fb is sufficient for distinguishing the three improved technicolor models experimentally.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Physical Review

World Class Curriculum – on a budget

Universities must compete in an increasingly difficult global market place. In order to successfully do so they must identify and profile market segments in order to achieve a unique selling position. Partnering may provide only part of the solution. The Cisco Network Academy Program (CNAP) is the world‘s largest network curriculum developed at an initial cost of US$75 million. There are advantages to becoming a Cisco academy such as access to on-line curriculum and low cost equipment. However, with over 10,000 Cisco academies world wide it is difficult to achieve a marketing advantage. Cisco provides low cost equipment but academies are responsible for laboratory design. Accordingly, a state-wide, national and international analysis was conducted of Cisco academy laboratories and hence two new laboratories designed and commissioned. These laboratories have been independently recognized to be of international standing. Significantly, other laboratories investigated were better equipped. Secondly the Cisco curriculum was analysed and found to lack a coherent and uniform pedagogical framework. A new diagrammatic model, State Model Diagrams (SMDs), was therefore designed. Curriculum based on SMDs was implemented and evaluated. Extensive evaluations of students taught using SMDs clearly resulted in better learning outcomes that those achieved by the standard Cisco curriculum. Furthermore, as a diagrammatic technique SMDs are substantially language independent – confirmed by a detailed analysis of overseas students taught using SMDs. By invitation, this research was presented to Cisco educational experts at the annual Cisco Asia/Pacific conference. The feedback was excellent. The initial trials of curriculum based on SMDs are now being extended internationally. All research to date (eleven publications), and feedback from Cisco Asia/Pacific strongly indicates that SMDs has the potential to be used as the pedagogical basis of the CNAP curriculum and hence affect the learning experience of over 500,000 students in more than 10,000 academies