An Exploratory Study of Lecturers' Views of Out-of-class Academic Collaboration Among Students

This article reports an exploratory study of lecturers' perceptions of out-of-class academic collaboration (OCAC) among students at a large Singapore university. Two types of OCAC were investigated: collaboration initiated by students, e.g., groups decide on their own to meet to prepare for exams, and collaboration required by teachers, e.g., teachers assign students to do projects in groups. Data were collected via one-on-one interviews with 18 faculty members from four faculties at the university. Findings suggest that OCAC, especially of a teacher-required kind, is fairly common at the university. Faculty members' views on factors affecting the success of OCAC are discussed for the light they might shed on practices to enhance the effectiveness of OCAC

Running Neutrino Masses, Leptonic Mixing Angles and CP-Violating Phases: From MZM_{\rm Z} to ΛGUT\Lambda_{\rm GUT}

We derive renormalization group equations for neutrino masses, leptonic mixing angles and CP-violating phases running at energies above the seesaw threshold, both in the Standard Model and in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model extended with three right-handed neutrinos. With these equations, we carry out a systematic study of the radiative correction that may arise to neutrino parameters, via their renormalization group evolution from the electroweak scale ($M_{\rm Z}$) to the scale of Grand Unified theories ($\Lambda_{\rm GUT}$). We study in detail three typically interesting neutrino mass patterns: normal hierarchy, near degeneracy and inverted hierarchy. Magnitudes of possible corrections in each case are carefully investigated. We also emphasize the significance of CP-violating phases in controlling the evolution behavior of all neutrino parameters.Comment: 45 pages, 2 tables, 10 figures; a misplaced graph in Figure 6 correcte

Do Linear Dispersions of Classical Waves Mean Dirac Cones?

By using the \vec{k}\cdot\vec{p} method, we propose a first-principles theory to study the linear dispersions in phononic and photonic crystals. The theory reveals that only those linear dispersions created by doubly-degenerate states can be described by a reduced Hamiltonian that can be mapped into the Dirac Hamiltonian and possess a Berry phase of -\pi. Triply-degenerate states can also generate Dirac-like cone dispersions, but the wavefunctions transform like a spin-1 particle and the Berry phase is zero. Our theory is capable of predicting accurately the linear slopes of Dirac/Dirac-like cones at various symmetry points in a Brilliouin zone, independent of frequency and lattice structure

Ellipsometry noise spectrum, suspension transfer function measurement and closed-loop control of the suspension system in the Q & A experiment

The Q & A experiment, aiming at the detection of vacuum birefringence predicted by quantum electrodynamics, consists mainly of a suspended 3.5 m Fabry-Perot cavity, a rotating permanent dipole magnet and an ellipsometer. The 2.3 T magnet can rotate up to 10 rev/s, introducing an ellipticity signal at twice the rotation frequency. The X-pendulum gives a good isolation ratio for seismic noise above its main resonant frequency 0.3 Hz. At present, the ellipsometry noise decreases with frequency, from 1*10^{-5} rad Hz^{-1/2} at 5 Hz, 2*10^{-6} rad Hz^{-1/2} at 20 Hz to 5*10^{-7} rad Hz^{-1/2} at 40 Hz. The shape of the noise spectrum indicates possible improvement can be made by further reducing the movement between the cavity mirrors. From the preliminary result of yaw motion alignment control, it can be seen that some peaks due to yaw motion of the cavity mirror was suppressed. In this paper, we first give a schematic view of the Q & A experiment, and then present the measurement of transfer function of the compound X-pendulum-double pendulum suspension. A closed-loop control was carried out to verify the validity of the measured transfer functions. The ellipsometry noise spectra with and without yaw alignment control and the newest improvement is presented.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, presented in 6th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, June 2005, Okinawa Japan and submitted to Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Some modifications are made according to the referee's comments: mainly to explain the relation between the displacement of cavity mirror and the ellipticity noise spectru

On Size and Shape of the Average Meson Fields in the Semibosonized Nambu & Jona-Lasinio Model

We consider a two-flavor Nambu \& Jona-Lasinio model in Hartree approximation involving scalar-isoscalar and pseudoscalar-isovector quark-quark interactions. Average meson fields are defined by minimizing the effective Euklidean action. The fermionic part of the action, which contains the full Dirac sea, is regularized within Schwinger's proper-time scheme. The meson fields are restricted to the chiral circle and to hedgehog configurations. The only parameter of the model is the constituent quark mass $M$ which simultaneously controls the regularization. We evaluate meson and quark fields self-consistently in dependence on the constituent quark mass. It is shown that the self-consistent fields do practically not depend on the constituent quark mass. This allows us to define a properly parameterized reference field which for physically relevant constituent masses can be used as a good approximation to the exactly calculated one. The reference field is chosen to have correct behaviour for small and large radii. To test the agreement between self-consistent and reference fields we calculate several observables like nucleon energy, mean square radius, axial-vector constant and delta-nucleon mass splitting in dependence on the constituent quark mass. The agreement is found to be very well. Figures available on request.Comment: 12 pages (LATEX), 3 figures available on request, report FZR 93-1

The Fermi level effect in III-V intermixing: The final nail in the coffin?

Copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 81, 2179 (1997) and may be found at