Learning and Language: Supporting Group Work So Group Work Supports Learning

This paper reports on developments in teaching and learning for first year employment relations students at the University of Wollongong based on creating conditions of learning informed by Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development’ theory. Essentially, this meant emphasising collaborative learning (group work) in the lecture theatre and in assessment tasks to provide opportunities for students to ‘learn the language’ of employment relations. The paper also considers collaboration between an employment relations discipline lecturer and an learning development discipline lecturer that helped identify the objectives for teaching and learning (the desired attributes of a Wollongong Graduate, ethical concerns about how students’ may affect one another in group work, and developing knowledge and skills to equip students to be effective in employment relations practice) within a particular task environment (characterised by an organisational imperative to ‘do more with less’, and students’ beliefs that lectures have the purpose of didactic information delivery) simultaneously with teaching. This paper offers readers a case study of the application of a teaching and learning theory that may stimulate reflection on their practice

Solving for Micro- and Macro- Scale Electrostatic Configurations Using the Robin Hood Algorithm

We present a novel technique by which highly-segmented electrostatic configurations can be solved. The Robin Hood method is a matrix-inversion algorithm optimized for solving high density boundary element method (BEM) problems. We illustrate the capabilities of this solver by studying two distinct geometry scales: (a) the electrostatic potential of a large volume beta-detector and (b) the field enhancement present at surface of electrode nano-structures. Geometries with elements numbering in the O(10^5) are easily modeled and solved without loss of accuracy. The technique has recently been expanded so as to include dielectrics and magnetic materials.Comment: 40 pages, 20 figure

Polarized Gluon Distribution Function from η′\eta' Production

Using the recently proposed $gg\eta'$ effective vertex, we investigate the production of $\eta'$ from gluon fusion in polarized pp collisions. We show that by measuring $A_{LL}$ in $\eta'$ production, one can extract the polarized gluon distribution $\Delta G(x,Q^2)$ at Q^2 \sim 1 \GeV^2 and in a wide range of x.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Notes on S-Matrix of Non-critical N=2 String

In this paper we discuss the scattering S-matrix of non-critical N=2 string at tree level. First we consider the \hat{c}<1 string defined by combining the N=2 time-like linear dilaton SCFT with the N=2 Liouville theory. We compute three particle scattering amplitudes explicitly and find that they are actually vanishing. We also find an evidence that this is true for higher amplitudes. Next we analyze another \hat{c}<1 string obtained from the N=2 time-like Liouville theory, which is closely related to the N=2 minimal string. In this case, we find a non-trivial expression for the three point functions. When we consider only chiral primaries, the amplitudes are very similar to those in the (1,n) non-critical bosonic string.Comment: 27 pages, harvmac, section 5 modified: a relation to (1,n) non-critical bosonic string adde

Testing Color Evaporation in Photon-Photon Production of J/Psi at CERN LEP II

The DELPHI Collaboration has recently reported the measurement of J/Psi production in photon-photon collisions at LEP II. These newly available data provide an additional proof of the importance of colored c bar{c} pairs for the production of charmonium because these data can only be explained by considering resolved photon processes. We show here that the inclusion of color octet contributions to the J/Psi production in the framework of the color evaporation model is able to reproduce this data. In particular, the transverse-momentum distribution of the J/Psi mesons is well described by this model.Comment: 10 pages, 5 Figures, Revtex

Leading Chiral Contributions to the Spin Structure of the Proton

The leading chiral contributions to the quark and gluon components of the proton spin are calculated using heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory. Similar calculations are done for the moments of the generalized parton distributions relevant to the quark and gluon angular momentum densities. These results provide useful insight about the role of pions in the spin structure of the nucleon, and can serve as a guidance for extrapolating lattice QCD calculations at large quark masses to the chiral limit.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures; a typo in Ref. 7 correcte

Gluon Saturation Effects at the Nuclear Surface: Inelastic Cross Section of Proton-Nucleus at Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray domain

Considering the high-energy limit of the QCD gluon distribution inside a nucleus, we calculate the proton-nucleus total inelastic cross section using a simplified dipole model. We show that, if gluon saturation occurs in the nuclear surface region, the total cross section of proton-nucleus collisions increases more rapidly as a function of the incident energy compared to that of a Glauber-type estimate. We discuss the implications of this with respect to recent ultra-high-energy cosmic ray experiments.Comment: Published in Nuclear Physics A, 29 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

ExTrA: Exoplanets in Transit and their Atmospheres

The ExTrA facility, located at La Silla observatory, will consist of a near-infrared multi-object spectrograph fed by three 60-cm telescopes. ExTrA will add the spectroscopic resolution to the traditional differential photometry method. This shall enable the fine correction of color-dependent systematics that would otherwise hinder ground-based observations. With both this novel method and an infrared-enabled efficiency, ExTrA aims to find transiting telluric planets orbiting in the habitable zone of bright nearby M dwarfs. It shall have the versatility to do so by running its own independent survey and also by concurrently following-up on the space candidates unveiled by K2 and TESS. The exoplanets detected by ExTrA will be amenable to atmospheric characterisation with VLTs, JWST, and ELTs and could give our first peek into an exo-life laboratory.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, SPIE 201

Shadowing in neutrino deep inelastic scattering and the determination of the strange quark distribution

We discuss shadowing corrections to the structure function $F_2$ in neutrino deep-inelastic scattering on heavy nuclear targets. In particular, we examine the role played by shadowing in the comparison of the structure functions $F_2$ measured in neutrino and muon deep inelastic scattering. The importance of shadowing corrections in the determination of the strange quark distributions is explained.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure