19,553 research outputs found
Science Leadership: Impact of the New Science Coordinators Academy
This article discusses the impact of the New Science Coordinators Academy (NSCA) on two cohorts of participants. The NSCA is one of four components of the Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA), a United States Department of Education (USED) science education reform grant. The NSCA is designed to support new school district science coordinators (with less than five years of experience) and to continue building the state science education infrastructure. Research in education leadership traditionally focuses on teacher leaders, principals, and district office personnel. Interestingly, research on district office personnel rarely distinguishes between the different roles of district personnel. This article seeks to inform the field by sharing the impact of an academy designed for new science coordinators on their learning, and to begin to understand their role and impact in their district. The five-day Academy engaged participants in a variety of experiences designed to facilitate the following: 1) build leadership skills; 2) build a common understanding and vision for hands-on science, inquiry, problem-based learning, and nature of science in the science classroom; 3) investigate data to improve student learning goals; 4) and, develop a science strategic plan. The data indicate that the NSCA was successful at meeting its goals to support the participants and to build a common language among these new coordinators. Initial data also support the variety of responsibilities of these participants and the positive impact of the Academy on their district work
Stellar Populations and Variable Stars in the Core of the Globular Cluster M5
We report the discovery of a variable blue straggler in the core of the
globular cluster M5, based on a 12-hour long series of images obtained with the
Planetary Camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition, we present the
light curves of 28 previously unknown or poorly studied large-amplitude
variable stars (all but one are RR Lyrae) in the cluster core. A (V, U-I)
color-magnitude diagram shows 24 blue stragglers within 2 core radii of the
cluster center. The blue straggler population is significantly more centrally
concentrated than the horizontal branch and red giant stars.Comment: 22 pages, 18 postscript figures, 1 postscript table, AJ, in press
(Feb 1998
Controlling entanglement by direct quantum feedback
We discuss the generation of entanglement between electronic states of two
atoms in a cavity using direct quantum feedback schemes. We compare the effects
of different control Hamiltonians and detection processes in the performance of
entanglement production and show that the quantum-jump-based feedback proposed
by us in Phys. Rev. A {\bf 76} 010301(R) (2007) can protect highly entangled
states against decoherence. We provide analytical results that explain the
robustness of jump feedback, and also analyse the perspectives of experimental
implementation by scrutinising the effects of imperfections and approximations
in our model.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. To appear in PR
Comment on Neutron-Proton Spin-Correlation Parameter A_{ZZ} at 68 Mev
We present two arguments indicating that the large value for the
mixing parameter at 50 MeV, which the Basel group extracted from their recent
measurement, may be incorrect. First, there are nucleon-nucleon (NN)
potentials which predict the at 50 MeV substantially below the
Basel value and reproduce the Basel data accurately. Second, the large
value for at 50 MeV proposed by the Basel group can only be
explained by a model for the NN interaction which is very unrealistic (no
-meson and essentially a point-like vertex) and overpredicts the
in the energy range where it is well determined (150--500 MeV) by
a factor of two.Comment: 6 pages text (LaTex) and 2 figures (paper, will be faxed upon
request), UI-NTH-930
A Parallax Distance to the Microquasar GRS 1915+105 and a Revised Estimate of its Black Hole Mass
Using the Very Long Baseline Array, we have measured a trigonometric parallax
for the micro quasar GRS 1915+105, which contains a black hole and a K-giant
companion. This yields a direct distance estimate of 8.6 (+2.0,-1.6) kpc and a
revised estimate for the mass of the black hole of 12.4 (+2.0,-1.8) Msun. GRS
1915+105 is at about the same distance as some HII regions and water masers
associated with high-mass star formation in the Sagittarius spiral arm of the
Galaxy. The absolute proper motion of GRS 1915+105 is -3.19 +/- 0.03 mas/y and
-6.24 +/- 0.05 mas/y toward the east and north, respectively, which corresponds
to a modest peculiar speed of 22 +/-24 km/s at the parallax distance,
suggesting that the binary did not receive a large velocity kick when the black
hole formed. On one observational epoch, GRS 1915+105 displayed superluminal
motion along the direction of its approaching jet. Considering previous
observations of jet motions, the jet in GRS 1915+105 can be modeled with a jet
inclination to the line of sight of 60 +/- 5 deg and a variable flow speed
between 0.65c and 0.81c, which possibly indicates deceleration of the jet at
distances from the black hole >2000 AU. Finally, using our measurements of
distance and estimates of black hole mass and inclination, we provisionally
confirm our earlier result that the black hole is spinning very rapidly.Comment: 20 pages; 2 tables; 6 figure
Constraining the History of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy Using Observations of its Tidal Debris
We present a comparison of semi-analytic models of the phase-space structure
of tidal debris with observations of stars associated with the Sagittarius
dwarf galaxy (Sgr). We find that many features in the data can be explained by
these models. The properties of stars 10-15 degrees away from the center of Sgr
--- in particular, the orientation of material perpendicular to Sgr's orbit
(c.f. Alard 1996) and the kink in the velocity gradient (Ibata et al 1997) ---
are consistent with those expected for unbound material stripped during the
most recent pericentric passage ~50 Myrs ago. The break in the slope of the
surface density seen by Mateo, Olszewski & Morrison (1998) at ~ b=-35 can be
understood as marking the end of this material. However, the detections beyond
this point are unlikely to represent debris in a trailing streamer, torn from
Sgr during the immediately preceding passage ~0.7 Gyrs ago, but are more
plausibly explained by a leading streamer of material that was lost more that 1
Gyr ago and has wrapped all the way around the Galaxy. The observations
reported in Majewski et al (1999) also support this hypothesis. We determine
debris models with these properties on orbits that are consistent with the
currently known positions and velocities of Sgr in Galactic potentials with
halo components that have circular velocities v_circ=140-200 km/s. The best
match to the data is obtained in models where Sgr currently has a mass of ~10^9
M_sun and has orbited the Galaxy for at least the last 1 Gyr, during which time
it has reduced its mass by a factor of 2-3, or luminosity by an amount
equivalent to ~10% of the total luminosity of the Galactic halo. These numbers
suggest that Sgr is rapidly disrupting and unlikely to survive beyond a few
more pericentric passages.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Astronomical Journa
Galaxy Clustering and Large-Scale Structure from z = 0.2 to z = 0.5 in Two Norris Redshift Surveys
(abridged) We present a study of the nature and evolution of large-scale
structure based on two independent redshift surveys of faint field galaxies
conducted with the 176-fiber Norris Spectrograph on the Palomar 200-inch
telescope. The two surveys together sparsely cover ~20 sq. degrees and contain
835 r < 21 mag galaxies with redshifts 0.2 < z < 0.5. Both surveys have a
median redshift of z = 0.30. In order to obtain a rough estimate of the cosmic
variance, we analyze the two surveys independently. We measure the comoving
correlation length to be 3.70 +/- 0.13 h^-1 Mpc at z = 0.30 with a power-law
slope gamma = 1.77 +/- 0.05. Dividing the sample into low (0.2 < z < 0.3) and
high (0.32 < z < 0.5) redshift intervals, we see no evidence for a change in
the comoving correlation length over the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.5. Similar
to the well-established results in the local universe, we find that
intrinsically bright galaxies are more strongly clustered than intrinsically
faint galaxies and that galaxies with little ongoing star formation, as judged
from the rest-frame equivalent width of the [OII]3727, are more strongly
clustered than galaxies with significant ongoing star formation. The rest-frame
pairwise velocity dispersion of the sample is 326^+67_-52 km s^-1, ~25% lower
than typical values measured locally. The appearance of the galaxy
distribution, particularly in the more densely sampled Abell 104 field, is
quite striking. The pattern of sheets and voids which has been observed locally
continues at least to z ~ 0.5. A friends-of-friends analysis of the galaxy
distribution supports the visual impression that > 90% of all galaxies at z <
0.5 are part of larger structures with overdensities of > 5.Comment: 40 pages including 26 Postscript figures; revised version to match
version accepted by Ap
Arrival direction distribution of cosmic rays of energy 10 (18) eV
The Haverah Park air-shower experiment recorded over 8500 events with primary energy 10 to the 18th power eV between 1963 and 1983. An analysis of these events for anisotropies in celestial and galactic coordinates is reported. No very striking anisotropies are observed
Correlations derived from Modern Nucleon-Nucleon Potentials
Various modern nucleon-nucleon (NN) potentials yield a very accurate fit to
the nucleon-nucleon scattering phase shifts. The differences between these
interactions in describing properties of nuclear matter are investigated.
Various contributions to the total energy are evaluated employing the Hellmann
- Feynman theorem. Special attention is paid to the two-nucleon correlation
functions derived from these interactions. Differences in the predictions of
the various interactions can be traced back to the inclusion of non-local
terms.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures include
Two liquid states of matter: A new dynamic line on a phase diagram
It is generally agreed that the supercritical region of a liquid consists of
one single state (supercritical fluid). On the other hand, we show here that
liquids in this region exist in two qualitatively different states: "rigid" and
"non-rigid" liquid. Rigid to non-rigid transition corresponds to the condition
{\tau} ~ {\tau}0, where {\tau}is liquid relaxation time and {\tau}0 is the
minimal period of transverse quasi-harmonic waves. This condition defines a new
dynamic line on the phase diagram, and corresponds to the loss of shear
stiffness of a liquid at all available frequencies, and consequently to the
qualitative change of many important liquid properties. We analyze the dynamic
line theoretically as well as in real and model liquids, and show that the
transition corresponds to the disappearance of high-frequency sound,
qualitative changes of diffusion and viscous flow, increase of particle thermal
speed to half of the speed of sound and reduction of the constant volume
specific heat to 2kB per particle. In contrast to the Widom line that exists
near the critical point only, the new dynamic line is universal: it separates
two liquid states at arbitrarily high pressure and temperature, and exists in
systems where liquid - gas transition and the critical point are absent
overall.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure
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