7,055 research outputs found
Topics in electrodynamics of moving media Final report, 1 May 1965 - 1 May 1966
Electrodynamics of moving medi
Electrodynamics of moving media First semiannual report, 1 May - 1 Nov. 1965
Electrodynamics of moving media - Minkowski covariant formulation - Radiation due to oscillating dipole in vacuum - Field of moving charge in bounded region and Cerenkov radiatio
Can students' feedback literacy be improved? A scoping review of interventions
Student feedback literacy has been the subject of much conceptual literature; however, relatively little intervention research has investigated how and if it can be developed. Further, no evaluation of the current empirical literature has been conducted to assess which elements of feedback literacy can be successfully improved in practice, and which elements need further investigation. This paper seeks to explore how different aspects of feedback literacy have been developed in higher education. A scoping review was conducted to address the foci, nature and success of interventions. The review found evidence that educational interventions enhanced feedback literacy in students, such as managing perceptions and attitudes, and having more confidence and agency in the feedback process. While some interventions have an effect on influencing student feedback literacy, both improved study design and intervention design are required to make the most of future feedback literacy interventions
Fermat's principle of least time in the presence of uniformly moving boundaries and media
The refraction of a light ray by a homogeneous, isotropic and non-dispersive
transparent material half-space in uniform rectilinear motion is investigated
theoretically. The approach is an amalgamation of the original Fermat's
principle and the fact that an isotropic optical medium at rest becomes
optically anisotropic in a frame where the medium is moving at a constant
velocity. Two cases of motion are considered: a) the material half-space is
moving parallel to the interface; b) the material half-space is moving
perpendicular to the interface. In each case, a detailed analysis of the
obtained refraction formula is provided, and in the latter case, an intriguing
backward refraction of light is noticed and thoroughly discussed. The results
confirm the validity of Fermat's principle when the optical media and the
boundaries between them are moving at relativistic speeds.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX 4, comments welcome; V2: revised, Fig. 7
added; V3: several typos corrected, accepted for publication in European
Journal of Physics (online at: http://stacks.iop.org/EJP/28/933
PT-Symmetric Quantum Theory Defined in a Krein Space
We provide a mathematical framework for PT-symmetric quantum theory, which is
applicable irrespective of whether a system is defined on R or a complex
contour, whether PT symmetry is unbroken, and so on. The linear space in which
PT-symmetric quantum theory is naturally defined is a Krein space constructed
by introducing an indefinite metric into a Hilbert space composed of square
integrable complex functions in a complex contour. We show that in this Krein
space every PT-symmetric operator is P-Hermitian if and only if it has
transposition symmetry as well, from which the characteristic properties of the
PT-symmetric Hamiltonians found in the literature follow. Some possible ways to
construct physical theories are discussed within the restriction to the class
K(H).Comment: 8 pages, no figures; Refs. added, minor revisio
A Peptide of SPARC Interferes with the Interaction between Caspase8 and Bcl2 to Resensitize Chemoresistant Tumors and Enhance Their Regression In Vivo
SPARC, a matricellular protein with tumor suppressor properties in certain human cancers, was initially identified in a genome-wide analysis of differentially expressed genes in chemotherapy resistance. Its exciting new role as a potential chemosensitizer arises from its ability to augment the apoptotic cascade, although the exact mechanisms are unclear. This study further examines the mechanism by which SPARC may be promoting apoptosis and identifies a smaller peptide analogue with greater chemosensitizing and tumor-regressing properties than the native protein. We examined the possibility that the apoptosis-enhancing activity of SPARC could reside within one of its three biological domains (N-terminus (NT), the follistatin-like (FS), or extracellular (EC) domains), and identified the N-terminus as the region with its chemosensitizing properties. These results were not only confirmed by studies utilizing stable cell lines overexpressing the different domains of SPARC, but as well, with a synthetic 51-aa peptide spanning the NT-domain. It revealed that the NT-domain induced a significantly greater reduction in cell viability than SPARC, and that it enhanced the apoptotic cascade via its activation of caspase 8. Moreover, in chemotherapy resistant human colon, breast and pancreatic cancer cells, its chemosensitizing properties also depended on its ability to dissociate Bcl2 from caspase 8. These observations translated to clinically significant findings in that, in-vivo, mouse tumor xenografts overexpressing the NT-domain of SPARC had significantly greater sensitivity to chemotherapy and tumor regression, even when compared to the highly-sensitive SPARC-overexpressing tumors. Our results identified an interplay between the NT-domain, Bcl2 and caspase 8 that helps augment apoptosis and as a consequence, a tumor's response to therapy. This NT-domain of SPARC and its 51-aa peptide are highly efficacious in modulating and enhancing apoptosis, thereby conferring greater chemosensitivity to resistant tumors. Our findings provide additional insight into mechanisms involved in chemotherapy resistance and a potential novel therapeutic that specifically targets this devastating phenomenon
Assessment for inclusion: rethinking contemporary strategies in assessment design
Assessment has multiple purposes, one of which is to judge if students have met outcomes at the requisite level. Underperformance in assessment is frequently positioned as a problem of the student and attributed to student diversity and/or background characteristics. However, the assessment might also be inequitable and therefore exclude students inappropriately. To be inclusive, assessment design needs to be reconsidered, and educators should look beyond simplistic categories of disability or social equity groups, towards considering and accounting for diversity on many spectra. This article introduces the concept of assessment for inclusion, which seeks to ensure diverse students are not disadvantaged through assessment practices. Assumptions in assessment design are problematised from this point of view, and three central concerns relating to assessment traditions, assessment expectations, and academic integrity are interrogated. Contemporary design strategies of authentic assessment, programmatic assessment, and assessment for distinctiveness are then harnessed to illustrate approaches to assessment for inclusion. Assessment for inclusion therefore builds on the synergies between inclusive practice and good assessment design
Novel Phases and Finite-Size Scaling in Two-Species Asymmetric Diffusive Processes
We study a stochastic lattice gas of particles undergoing asymmetric
diffusion in two dimensions. Transitions between a low-density uniform phase
and high-density non-uniform phases characterized by localized or extended
structure are found. We develop a mean-field theory which relates
coarse-grained parameters to microscopic ones. Detailed predictions for
finite-size () scaling and density profiles agree excellently with
simulations. Unusual large- behavior of the transition point parallel to
that of self-organized sandpile models is found.Comment: 7 pages, plus 6 figures uuencoded, compressed and appended after
source code, LATeX, to be published as a Phys. Rev. Let
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