Wind trajectory tracing for air pollution studies (AIRPOL)

Wind trajectory computer program, consisting of data handling program and analysis program, traces Los Angeles Basin wind patterns either backward or forward in time. Program may be applicable to other areas

Pupil mobility, attainment and progress in secondary school

This paper is the second of two articles arising from a study of the association between pupil mobility and attainment in national tests and examinations in an inner London borough. The first article (Strand & Demie, 2006) examined the association of pupil mobility with attainment and progress during primary school. It concluded that pupil mobility had little impact on performance in national tests at age 11, once pupils’ prior attainment at age 7 and other pupil background factors such as age, sex, special educational needs, stage of fluency in English and socio-economic disadvantage were taken into account. The present article reports the results for secondary schools (age 11-16). The results indicate that pupil mobility continues to have a significant negative association with performance in public examinations at age 16, even after including statistical controls for prior attainment at age 11 and other pupil background factors. Possible reasons for the contrasting results across school phases are explored. The implications for policy and further research are discussed

Correlated Defect Creation in HfO2 films

Spatially correlated defect generation process has been proposed to be responsible for TDDB Weibull slope measured in HfO 2 . We investigated possible mechanisms for correlated defect production in amorphous (a) HfO 2 films under applied stress bias using ab initio simulations. During bias application, electron injection into these films leads to the localization of up to two electrons at intrinsic trapping sites present due to the structural disorder in amorphous structures and to formation of O vacancies. Trapping of two extra electrons at a pre-exiting O vacancy facilitate the formation of a new vacancies affecting TDDB statistics and its dependence on the film thickness

Educational aspirations in inner city schools

The research aimed to assess the nature and level of pupils’ educational aspirations and to elucidate the factors that influence these aspirations. A sample of five inner city comprehensive secondary schools were selected by their Local Authority because of poor pupil attendance, below average examination results and low rates of continuing in full-time education after the age of 16. Schools were all ethnically mixed and co-educational. Over 800 pupils aged 12-14 completed a questionnaire assessing pupils’ experience of home, school and their peers. A sub-sample of 48 pupils selected by teachers to reflect ethnicity and ability levels in individual schools also participated in detailed focus group interviews. There were no significant differences in aspirations by gender or year group, but differences between ethnic groups were marked. Black African, Asian Other and Pakistani groups had significantly higher educational aspirations than the White British group, who had the lowest aspirations. The results suggest the high aspirations of Black African, Asian Other and Pakistani pupils are mediated through strong academic self-concept, positive peer support, a commitment to schooling and high educational aspirations in the home. They also suggest that low educational aspirations may have different mediating influences in different ethnic groups. The low aspirations of White British pupils seem to relate most strongly to poor academic self-concept and low educational aspirations in the home, while for Black Caribbean pupils disaffection, negative peers and low commitment to schooling appear more relevant. Interviews with pupils corroborated the above findings and further illuminated the factors students described as important in their educational aspirations. The results are discussed in relation to theories of aspiration which stress its nature as a cultural capacity

SACMAN automated canal control system

Presented during the Third international conference on irrigation and drainage held March 30 - April 2, 2005 in San Diego, California. The theme of the conference was "Water district management and governance."Includes bibliographical references.Many irrigation districts currently operate their main canals, pumping plants, etc. remotely with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software. This is usually manual operation with perhaps a few local automatic control features. SacMan (software for automated canal management) is a software package that adds canal automation logic to commercially-available, windows-based SCADA packages. It allows the user to implement a variety of automatic control features, including complete automatic control, where feasible. It was developed through research at the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix, AZ. SacMan has several levels of implementation ranging from manual control to full automatic control, including upstream level control, flow rate control, routing of known demand changes, and full (distant) downstream level control. SacMan interfaces with commercial Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software, currently iFix by GE Fanuc (formerly Intellution, Inc.), but potentially applicable to other SCADA packages. SacMan was field tested on the WM lateral canal at the Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District (MSIDD) in central Arizona. In July/August 2004, SacMan successfully operated the WM canal for a period of 30 days, nearly continuously. This paper describes the features of this canal automation software and some results from this long-term testing.Sponsored by USCID; co-sponsored by Association of California Water Agencies and International Network for Participatory Irrigation Management

Double precision trajectory program /DPTRAJ 2.2C/

Four part program computes trajectory of space probe moving in solar system and subject to variety of forces

Spin injection from the Heusler alloy Co_2MnGe into Al_0.1Ga_0.9As/GaAs heterostructures

Electrical spin injection from the Heusler alloy Co_2MnGe into a p-i-n Al_0.1Ga_0.9As/GaAs light emitting diode is demonstrated. A maximum steady-state spin polarization of approximately 13% at 2 K is measured in two types of heterostructures. The injected spin polarization at 2 K is calculated to be 27% based on a calibration of the spin detector using Hanle effect measurements. Although the dependence on electrical bias conditions is qualitatively similar to Fe-based spin injection devices of the same design, the spin polarization injected from Co_2MnGe decays more rapidly with increasing temperature.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure