Invisible and Special: young women’s experiences as undergraduate mathematics students

This paper reports on young women students’ participation in their undergraduate mathematics degree programme: their gendered trajectory is characterised in terms of their being both ‘invisible’ in the dominant university mathematics community and yet ‘special’ in their self-conception. It draws on data collected from a three year longitudinal project investigating students’ experiences of undergraduate mathematics at two comparable traditional universities in England. Specifically, students’ narratives are interpreted as providing insights into their defensive investments in their particular ways of participating. An interpretive feminist perspective is used to claim that these young women are involved in the ongoing redefining of the gendering of participation in mathematics, and conveys how they manage to choose mathematics, and achieve in university mathematics, whilst in many respects adhering to everyday views of femininity

Developing maths-identities of overseas trained teachers from developing countries: two voices

This paper reports on teacher-students’ developing mathematics-teacher identities as they participated in a mathematics education module which they took as an option as part of their BEd in-service degree. Multiple qualitative methods have been used to gather data on the 14 teacher-students’ mathematical development, attitudes and reflections on their professional practice over the course of the year. In this paper, in-depth accounts of two of the students’- (one Caribbean and one African) - developing identities as mathematics teachers are presented using socio -cultural, discursive and defended-subject theoretical frameworks for the analysis. The paper exemplifies discourses producing maths teacher identities while simultaneously defending against interrogation of mathematical and pedagogical practices

World Bank lending for education research, 1982-89

As a follow up to the earlier review of research in education projects, this study inventories research in education projects, 1982 to 1989, and traces the completion status of studies that were incomplete before 1982. Data were collected on research volume, cost and the conditions under which research components yield accessible and useful information. This paper describes the strategy employed to identify the research components and studies. It presents findings with respect to: (i) the volume of studies and compares these results with the earlier study; (ii) the type of studies reported; and (iii) the budgeted cost of the studies. It also examines preconditions of study completion, using data from Staff Appraisal Reports (SARs) and interviews with selected Project Officers. The final section discusses the findings and draws conclusions.Teaching and Learning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis

Origin of neutrino masses at the LHC: Delta L = 2 effective operators and their ultraviolet completions

Neutrino masses and mixings can be generated in many different ways, with some of these scenarios featuring new physics at energy scales relevant for Large Hadron Collider searches. A systematic approach to constructing a large class of models for Majorana neutrinos may be founded upon a list of gauge-invariant effective operators -- formed from quarks, leptons and the Higgs doublet -- that violate lepton-number conservation by two units. By opening up these operators in all possible ways consistent with some minimality assumptions, a complete catalogue of a class of minimal radiative neutrino mass models may be produced. In this paper we present an analysis of Feynman diagram topologies relevant for the ultra-violet completions of these effective operators and collect these into a simple recipe that can be used to generate radiative neutrino mass models. Since high mass-dimension effective operators are suppressed by powers of the scale of new physics, many of the resulting models can be meaningfully tested at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 32 pages, 15 figures. v2: Minor changes: added discussion about the scope of the analysis, added referenc

Time-symmetric quantization in spacetimes with event horizons

The standard quantization formalism in spacetimes with event horizons implies a non-unitary evolution of quantum states, as initial pure states may evolve into thermal states. This phenomenon is behind the famous black hole information loss paradox which provoked long-standing debates on the compatibility of quantum mechanics and gravity. In this paper we demonstrate that within an alternative time-symmetric quantization formalism thermal radiation is absent and states evolve unitarily in spacetimes with event horizons. We also discuss the theoretical consistency of the proposed formalism. We explicitly demonstrate that the theory preserves the microcausality condition and suggest a "reinterpretation postulate" to resolve other apparent pathologies associated with negative energy states. Accordingly as there is a consistent alternative, we argue that choosing to use time-asymmetric quantization is a necessary condition for the black hole information loss paradox.Comment: 9 page

A Search for Dark Matter Annihilation in Galaxy Groups

We use 413 weeks of publicly-available $\textit{Fermi}$ Pass 8 gamma-ray data, combined with recently-developed galaxy group catalogs, to search for evidence of dark matter annihilation in extragalactic halos. In our study, we use luminosity-based mass estimates and mass-to-concentration relations to infer the $J$-factors and associated uncertainties for hundreds of galaxy groups within a redshift range $z \lesssim 0.03$. We employ a conservative substructure boost-factor model, which only enhances the sensitivity by an $\mathcal{O}(1)$ factor. No significant evidence for dark matter annihilation is found and we exclude thermal relic cross sections for dark matter masses below $\sim$30 GeV to 95% confidence in the $b\bar{b}$ annihilation channel. These bounds are comparable to those from Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies. The results of our analysis increase the tension, but do not rule out, the dark matter interpretation of the Galactic Center excess. We provide a catalog of the galaxy groups used in this study and their inferred properties, which can be broadly applied to searches for extragalactic dark matter.Comment: 5+18 pages, 1+14 figures, catalog available at: https://github.com/bsafdi/DMCat; v2 updated to journal version with several updates, results and conclusions unchange

Redefining Murder: Joint Enterprise

This article explores the evolution of secondary liability and the unforgiving doctrine of joint enterprise in homicide cases. Exploration of the current law ensues to determine if the distinct decisions of their Lordships in both Powell and Rahman have failed to sufficiently clarify the law; followed by in depth analysis of the Law Commission and Ministry of Justice proposals to reform this infamously disputed area of law

Serotonin-3 Receptors in the Posterior Ventral Tegmental Area Regulate Ethanol Self-Administration of Alcohol-Preferring (P) Rats

Several studies indicated the involvement of serotonin-3 (5-HT 3 ) receptors in regulating alcohol- drinking behavior. The objective of this study was to determine the involvement of 5-HT 3 receptors within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in regulating ethanol self-administration by alcohol-preferring (P) rats. Standard two-lever operant chambers were used to examine the effects of 7 consecutive bilateral micro-infusions of ICS205-930 (ICS), a 5-HT 3 receptor antagonist, directly into the posterior VTA on the acquisition and maintenance of 15% (v/v) ethanol self- administration. P rats readily acquired ethanol self-administration by the 4 th session. The three highest doses (0.125, 0.25 and 1.25 ug) of ICS prevented acquisition of ethanol self- administration. During the acquisition post-injection period, all rats treated with ICS demonstrated higher responding on the ethanol lever, with the highest dose producing the greatest effect. In contrast, during the maintenance phase, the 3 highest doses (0.75, 1.0 and 1.25 ug) of ICS significantly increased responding on the ethanol lever; following the 7-day dosing regimen, responding on the ethanol lever returned to control levels. Micro-infusion of ICS into the posterior VTA did not alter the low responding on the water lever, and did not alter saccharin (0.0125% w/v) self-administration.. Micro-infusion of ICS into the anterior VTA did not alter ethanol self- administration. Overall, the results of this study suggest that 5-HT 3 receptors in the posterior VTA of the P rat may be involved in regulating ethanol self-administration. In addition, chronic operant ethanol self-administration, and/or repeated treatments with a 5-HT 3 receptor antagonist may alter neuronal circuitry within the posterior VTA