IMAGING OF LOW REDSHIFT QSOs WITH WFPC2

Observations with the PC2 CCD of the Hubble Space Telescope are described of two bright QSOs of redshift ~0.3. 1403+434 is IR-bright and radio-quiet, and 2201+315 is radio-loud with extended structure. Exposures were taken with the F702W and F555W filters. The images are deconvolved on their own and combined with 0.5 arcsec ground-based images. Both host galaxies have the form and luminosity of bright ellipticals, with nuclei of 1-2 times higher luminosity. 1403+434 is strongly interacting while 2201+315 may be in later stages of a merger, both with a smaller companion. Both host galaxies have compact knots and other small-scale peculiar features. Some general remarks are made based on the total program sample of 6 QSOs.Comment: 11 pages, Plain TeX, 3 figures available from [email protected] To appear in the Astronomical Journal

Molar mass and solution conformation of branched alpha(1 - 4), alpha(1 - 6) Glucans. Part I: Glycogens in water

Solution molar masses and conformations of glycogens from different sources (rabbit, oyster, mussel and bovine) were analysed using sedimentation velocity in the analytical ultracentrifuge, size-exclusion chromatography coupled to multi-angle laser light scattering (SEC-MALLS), size-exclusion chromatography coupled to a differential pressure viscometer and dynamic light scattering. Rabbit, oyster and mussel glycogens consisted of one population of high molar mass (weight averages ranging from 4.6 x 106 to 1.1 x 107 g/mol) as demonstrated by sedimentation velocity and SEC-MALLS, whereas bovine glycogen had a bimodal distribution of significantly lower molar mass (1.0 x 105 and 4.5 x 105 g/mol). The spherical structure of all glycogen molecules was demonstrated in the slopes of the Mark-Houwink-Kuhn-Sakurada-type power-law relations for sedimentation coefficient (s20,wo), intrinsic viscosity ([η]), radius of gyration (rg,z) and radius of hydration (rH,z), respectively, and was further supported by the � (=rg,z/rH,z) function, the fractal dimension and the Perrin function. The degree of branching was estimated to be ∼10% from the shrinking factors, g′ (=[η]branched/[η]linear) and also h (=(f/fo)branched/(f/fo)linear), respectively, where (f/fo) is the translational frictional ratio, consistent with expectation. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Psychological Issues in Online Adaptive Task Allocation

Adaptive aiding is an idea that offers potential for improvement over many current approaches to aiding in human-computer systems. The expected return of tailoring the system to fit the user could be in the form of improved system performance and/or increased user satisfaction. Issues such as the manner in which information is shared between human and computer, the appropriate division of labor between them, and the level of autonomy of the aid are explored. A simulated visual search task was developed. Subjects are required to identify targets in a moving display while performing a compensatory sub-critical tracking task. By manipulating characteristics of the situation such as imposed task-related workload and effort required to communicate with the computer, it is possible to create conditions in which interaction with the computer would be more or less desirable. The results of preliminary research using this experimental scenario are presented, and future directions for this research effort are discussed

Annular electroconvection with shear

We report experiments on convection driven by a radial electrical force in suspended annular smectic A liquid crystal films. In the absence of an externally imposed azimuthal shear, a stationary one-dimensional (1D) pattern consisting of symmetric vortex pairs is formed via a supercritical transition at the onset of convection. Shearing reduces the symmetries of the base state and produces a traveling 1D pattern whose basic periodic unit is a pair of asymmetric vortices. For a sufficiently large shear, the primary bifurcation changes from supercritical to subcritical. We describe measurements of the resulting hysteresis as a function of the shear at radius ratio $\eta \sim 0.8$. This simple pattern forming system has an unusual combination of symmetries and control parameters and should be amenable to quantitative theoretical analysis.Comment: 12 preprint pages, 3 figures in 2 parts each. For more info, see http://mobydick.physics.utoronto.c

THE IMPACT OF RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY ON FACULTY PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR INSTRUCTIONAL ROLES

The classroom is a dynamic social space. When faculty members and students enter that space for purposes of teaching and learning in a racially and ethnically diverse context, there are many actors that come into full participation: faculty members, students, the curriculum, cultural and ethnic diversity, challenges associated with racial and ethnic diversity such as culturally-based learning styles, prejudices and stereotypes, expectations between faculty and students, among other things. The extent to which faculty members are effective in conducting their instructional roles is impacted by their awareness of the classroom dynamic, the opportunities and challenges it provides for teaching and learning, and how adequately they are prepared to overcome the effects of the challenges and optimize the teaching and learning opportunities. This dissertation set out to explore, using faculty experience (in number of years), how culturally-based learning styles/preferences impacted faculty instructional roles: how faculty perceived their roles, their choice and use of course content, and their choice and use of teaching and evaluation methods. To gather such data, forty out of seventy faculty members teaching in one of the most racially and ethnically diverse higher education institutions in the continental United States responded to a survey, and fifteen were interviewed. The result shows that while teaching experience is important to understanding a classroom context, in the racially and ethnically diverse classroom, numbers are not an adequate measure of experience. Experience involves understanding and adequately responding to the racially and ethnically diverse classroom. It consists of intellectual, personal, and relational dimensions. To acquire these, faculty must be committed to acquiring self-knowledge first, and then understanding their need to develop sensibilities for understanding and interacting with race and ethnicity. This yields credibility with students and, eventually, instructional effectiveness. Except for a few instances, years of teaching experience in the racially and ethnically diverse classroom did not have direct affect on how faculty perceived and performed their instructional roles, and faculty preferred to view their commitment to racial and ethnic diversity as a better measure of experience rather than the number of years they have taught in such contexts

Weakly Nonlinear Analysis of Electroconvection in a Suspended Fluid Film

It has been experimentally observed that weakly conducting suspended films of smectic liquid crystals undergo electroconvection when subjected to a large enough potential difference. The resulting counter-rotating vortices form a very simple convection pattern and exhibit a variety of interesting nonlinear effects. The linear stability problem for this system has recently been solved. The convection mechanism, which involves charge separation at the free surfaces of the film, is applicable to any sufficiently two-dimensional fluid. In this paper, we derive an amplitude equation which describes the weakly nonlinear regime, by starting from the basic electrohydrodynamic equations. This regime has been the subject of several recent experimental studies. The lowest order amplitude equation we derive is of the Ginzburg-Landau form, and describes a forward bifurcation as is observed experimentally. The coefficients of the amplitude equation are calculated and compared with the values independently deduced from the linear stability calculation.Comment: 26 pages, 2 included eps figures, submitted to Phys Rev E. For more information, see http://mobydick.physics.utoronto.c

Exact solutions of charged wormhole

In this paper, the backreaction to the traversable Lorentzian wormhole spacetime by the scalar field or electric charge is considered to find the exact solutions. The charges play the role of the additional matter to the static wormhole which is already constructed by the exotic matter. The stability conditions for the wormhole with scalar field and electric charge are found from the positiveness and flareness for the wormhole shape function.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, no figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. D(2001