The University of Newcastle’s solution to the dwindling number of Science and Engineering students: Enlarge the pool

Over the last decade there has been a well-documented reduction in enrolments in the science and engineering courses at the secondary tertiary levels of education. People have speculated about the causes of this disturbing international trend, however, up until now, no one has been successful in turning it around. The University of Newcastle has developed two programs that, rather than trying to attract some of the small number of potential students to Newcastle, actually aims to increase the overall size of the pool of suitably qualified and enthused people. The initiatives are known as the SMART (Science, Mathematics And Real Technology) program and The Science and Technology Challenge. SMART is aimed mainly at infants and primary school age students. It uses interactive demonstration-based and multimedia science shows to inspire and engage young minds. The Science Show Off! Competition, a spin-off of the SMART program, provides a forum for school students to present their own science show to large public audiences. The Science and Engineering Challenge is a competitive workshop-style event for year 9 and 10 high school students. Teams are challenged to apply knowledge together with their own experience, creativity, teamwork and analytical skills to resolving realistic engineering and science problems. There is a growing body of evidence that the programs are contributing to an increased enrolment in high school and university science courses. The University of Newcastle, for example, experienced 150 per cent increase in enrolments in Science degrees over the past two years and an increase in the University Admission Index for a Science degree from 67.5 to 70.1. This poster overviews the rationale and structure of the programs, and how they both support and enhance the teaching of science. Initial research finding and plans for the future will also be presented

Dust Grain Orbital Behavior Around Ceres

Many asteroids show indications they have undergone impacts with meteoroid particles having radii between 0.01 m and 1 m. During such impacts, small dust grains will be ejected at the impact site. The possibility of these dust grains (with radii greater than 2.2x10-6 m) forming a halo around a spherical asteroid (such as Ceres) is investigated using standard numerical integration techniques. The orbital elements, positions, and velocities are determined for particles with varying radii taking into account both the influence of gravity, radiation pressure, and the interplanetary magnetic field (for charged particles). Under the influence of these forces it is found that dust grains (under the appropriate conditions) can be injected into orbits with lifetimes in excess of one year. The lifetime of the orbits is shown to be highly dependent on the location of the ejection point as well as the angle between the surface normal and the ejection path. It is also shown that only particles ejected within 10 degrees relative to the surface tangential survive more than a few hours and that the longest-lived particles originate along a line perpendicular to the Ceres-Sun line.Comment: 8 pages, Presented at COSPAR '0

Magnetic Field Amplification in Galaxy Clusters and its Simulation

We review the present theoretical and numerical understanding of magnetic field amplification in cosmic large-scale structure, on length scales of galaxy clusters and beyond. Structure formation drives compression and turbulence, which amplify tiny magnetic seed fields to the microGauss values that are observed in the intracluster medium. This process is intimately connected to the properties of turbulence and the microphysics of the intra-cluster medium. Additional roles are played by merger induced shocks that sweep through the intra-cluster medium and motions induced by sloshing cool cores. The accurate simulation of magnetic field amplification in clusters still poses a serious challenge for simulations of cosmological structure formation. We review the current literature on cosmological simulations that include magnetic fields and outline theoretical as well as numerical challenges.Comment: 60 pages, 19 Figure

Heavy quarkonium: progress, puzzles, and opportunities

A golden age for heavy quarkonium physics dawned a decade ago, initiated by the confluence of exciting advances in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and an explosion of related experimental activity. The early years of this period were chronicled in the Quarkonium Working Group (QWG) CERN Yellow Report (YR) in 2004, which presented a comprehensive review of the status of the field at that time and provided specific recommendations for further progress. However, the broad spectrum of subsequent breakthroughs, surprises, and continuing puzzles could only be partially anticipated. Since the release of the YR, the BESII program concluded only to give birth to BESIII; the $B$-factories and CLEO-c flourished; quarkonium production and polarization measurements at HERA and the Tevatron matured; and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC have opened a window on the deconfinement regime. All these experiments leave legacies of quality, precision, and unsolved mysteries for quarkonium physics, and therefore beg for continuing investigations. The plethora of newly-found quarkonium-like states unleashed a flood of theoretical investigations into new forms of matter such as quark-gluon hybrids, mesonic molecules, and tetraquarks. Measurements of the spectroscopy, decays, production, and in-medium behavior of c\bar{c}, b\bar{b}, and b\bar{c} bound states have been shown to validate some theoretical approaches to QCD and highlight lack of quantitative success for others. The intriguing details of quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions that have emerged from RHIC have elevated the importance of separating hot- and cold-nuclear-matter effects in quark-gluon plasma studies. This review systematically addresses all these matters and concludes by prioritizing directions for ongoing and future efforts.Comment: 182 pages, 112 figures. Editors: N. Brambilla, S. Eidelman, B. K. Heltsley, R. Vogt. Section Coordinators: G. T. Bodwin, E. Eichten, A. D. Frawley, A. B. Meyer, R. E. Mitchell, V. Papadimitriou, P. Petreczky, A. A. Petrov, P. Robbe, A. Vair

Customer emotions in service failure and recovery encounters

Emotions play a significant role in the workplace, and considerable attention has been given to the study of employee emotions. Customers also play a central function in organizations, but much less is known about customer emotions. This chapter reviews the growing literature on customer emotions in employee–customer interfaces with a focus on service failure and recovery encounters, where emotions are heightened. It highlights emerging themes and key findings, addresses the measurement, modeling, and management of customer emotions, and identifies future research streams. Attention is given to emotional contagion, relationships between affective and cognitive processes, customer anger, customer rage, and individual differences

KRAS G12C Inhibition with Sotorasib in Advanced Solid Tumors

Background: No therapies for targeting KRAS mutations in cancer have been approved. The KRAS p.G12C mutation occurs in 13% of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) and in 1 to 3% of colorectal cancers and other cancers. Sotorasib is a small molecule that selectively and irreversibly targets KRASG12C. Methods: We conducted a phase 1 trial of sotorasib in patients with advanced solid tumors harboring the KRAS p.G12C mutation. Patients received sotorasib orally once daily. The primary end point was safety. Key secondary end points were pharmacokinetics and objective response, as assessed according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), version 1.1. Results: A total of 129 patients (59 with NSCLC, 42 with colorectal cancer, and 28 with other tumors) were included in dose escalation and expansion cohorts. Patients had received a median of 3 (range, 0 to 11) previous lines of anticancer therapies for metastatic disease. No dose-limiting toxic effects or treatment-related deaths were observed. A total of 73 patients (56.6%) had treatment-related adverse events; 15 patients (11.6%) had grade 3 or 4 events. In the subgroup with NSCLC, 32.2% (19 patients) had a confirmed objective response (complete or partial response) and 88.1% (52 patients) had disease control (objective response or stable disease); the median progression-free survival was 6.3 months (range, 0.0+ to 14.9 [with + indicating that the value includes patient data that were censored at data cutoff]). In the subgroup with colorectal cancer, 7.1% (3 patients) had a confirmed response, and 73.8% (31 patients) had disease control; the median progression-free survival was 4.0 months (range, 0.0+ to 11.1+). Responses were also observed in patients with pancreatic, endometrial, and appendiceal cancers and melanoma. Conclusions: Sotorasib showed encouraging anticancer activity in patients with heavily pretreated advanced solid tumors harboring the KRAS p.G12C mutation. Grade 3 or 4 treatment-related toxic effects occurred in 11.6% of the patients. (Funded by Amgen and others; CodeBreaK100 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03600883.)

Search for leptophobic Z ' bosons decaying into four-lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for black holes and other new phenomena in high-multiplicity final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe