The design, implementation, and assessment of software for use in the teaching of history

(1) In recent years nine arts-related departments at Glasgow University have been successful in winning funds for the creation of large databases. Although these data are being extensively exploited for research, the great potential they offer for undergraduate teaching remains largely untapped due to the lack of suitably tailored software and hardware provision. (2) Our objective is to give arts-based students access to these complex highly structured data in the classroom without requiring them to master difficult operating systems. In this way they would gain valuable transferable skills in information technology. These will enhance the historians' traditional skills of evaluating, interpreting and presenting evidence, long recognized as useful by employers. (3) The scheme will require the establishment of a centrally sited teaching laboratory comprising sixteen micro-computers and fileserver linked to the mainframe through a communications PAD. Chosen to ensure a maximum degree of compatability, the micro-computers (with the appropriate operating system) will be capable of acting as terminals, as a local area network or as single workstations. A facility technician will be employed to supervise the lab's day-to-day running, leaving a programmer/analyst to concentrate exclusively on applying and developing software for the three designated courses. (4) The software will enable students to access and scan files with ease and submit complex search, correlative, and quantitative requests by means of a friendly user interface. It will be possible to generate output in alphanumeric and graphic format either online or in hard copy. Throughout, priority will be given to transferability and portability, particularly in relation to the complementary project at the University of Edinburgh. (5) The project will be directed by Dr. R.H. Trainor consulting with a committee representing the participants - the departments of Modern History, Scottish History and Economic History, the University Archives, the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine - and the Computing Service. The latter will provide overall technical supervision. The department of Computing Science will co-operate in formulating an academic staff development programme. With the help of the University adviser on teaching methods the designated courses will be closely monitored in order to assess the value of the particular software, hardware and teaching methods in the project

Molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the evolution of form and function in the amniote jaw.

The amniote jaw complex is a remarkable amalgamation of derivatives from distinct embryonic cell lineages. During development, the cells in these lineages experience concerted movements, migrations, and signaling interactions that take them from their initial origins to their final destinations and imbue their derivatives with aspects of form including their axial orientation, anatomical identity, size, and shape. Perturbations along the way can produce defects and disease, but also generate the variation necessary for jaw evolution and adaptation. We focus on molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate form in the amniote jaw complex, and that enable structural and functional integration. Special emphasis is placed on the role of cranial neural crest mesenchyme (NCM) during the species-specific patterning of bone, cartilage, tendon, muscle, and other jaw tissues. We also address the effects of biomechanical forces during jaw development and discuss ways in which certain molecular and cellular responses add adaptive and evolutionary plasticity to jaw morphology. Overall, we highlight how variation in molecular and cellular programs can promote the phenomenal diversity and functional morphology achieved during amniote jaw evolution or lead to the range of jaw defects and disease that affect the human condition

Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions

We review the most important experimental results from the first three years of nucleus-nucleus collision studies at RHIC, with emphasis on results from the STAR experiment, and we assess their interpretation and comparison to theory. The theory-experiment comparison suggests that central Au+Au collisions at RHIC produce dense, rapidly thermalizing matter characterized by: (1) initial energy densities above the critical values predicted by lattice QCD for establishment of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP); (2) nearly ideal fluid flow, marked by constituent interactions of very short mean free path, established most probably at a stage preceding hadron formation; and (3) opacity to jets. Many of the observations are consistent with models incorporating QGP formation in the early collision stages, and have not found ready explanation in a hadronic framework. However, the measurements themselves do not yet establish unequivocal evidence for a transition to this new form of matter. The theoretical treatment of the collision evolution, despite impressive successes, invokes a suite of distinct models, degrees of freedom and assumptions of as yet unknown quantitative consequence. We pose a set of important open questions, and suggest additional measurements, at least some of which should be addressed in order to establish a compelling basis to conclude definitively that thermalized, deconfined quark-gluon matter has been produced at RHIC.Comment: 101 pages, 37 figures; revised version to Nucl. Phys.

Electroweak parameters of the z0 resonance and the standard model

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