On the strong anomalous diffusion

The superdiffusion behavior, i.e. $\sim t^{2 \nu}$, with $\nu > 1/2$, in general is not completely characherized by a unique exponent. We study some systems exhibiting strong anomalous diffusion, i.e. $\sim t^{q \nu(q)}$ where $\nu(2)>1/2$ and $q \nu(q)$ is not a linear function of $q$. This feature is different from the weak superdiffusion regime, i.e. $\nu(q)=const > 1/2$, as in random shear flows. The strong anomalous diffusion can be generated by nontrivial chaotic dynamics, e.g. Lagrangian motion in $2d$ time-dependent incompressible velocity fields, $2d$ symplectic maps and $1d$ intermittent maps. Typically the function $q \nu(q)$ is piecewise linear. This corresponds to two mechanisms: a weak anomalous diffusion for the typical events and a ballistic transport for the rare excursions. In order to have strong anomalous diffusion one needs a violation of the hypothesis of the central limit theorem, this happens only in a very narrow region of the control parameters space.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

The Young Stellar Population of the Nearby Late-Type Galaxy NGC 1311

We have extracted PSF-fitted stellar photometry from near-ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared images, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, of the nearby (D ~ 5.5 Mpc) SBm galaxy NGC 1311. The ultraviolet and optical data reveal a population of hot main sequence stars with ages of 2-10 Myr. We also find populations of blue supergiants with ages between 10 and 40 Myr and red supergiants with ages between 10 and 100 Myr. Our near-infrared data shows evidence of star formation going back ~1 Gyr, in agreement with previous work. Fits to isochrones indicate a metallicity of Z ~ 0.004. The ratio of blue to red supergiants is consistent with this metallicity. This indicates that NGC 1311 follows the well-known luminosity-metallicity relation for late-type dwarf galaxies. About half of the hot main sequence stars and blue supergiants are found in two regions in the inner part of NGC 1311. These two regions are each about 200 pc across, and thus have crossing times roughly equal to the 10 Myr age we find for the dominant young population. The Luminosity Functions of the supergiants indicate a slowly rising star formation rate (of 0.001 Solar masses per year) from ~100 Myr ago until ~15 Myr ago, followed by a strong enhancement (to 0.01 Solar Masses per year) at ~10 Myr ago. We see no compelling evidence for gaps in the star-forming history of NGC 1311 over the last 100 Myr, and, with lower significance, none over the last Gyr. This argues against a bursting mode, and in favor of a gasping or breathing mode for the recent star-formation history.Comment: AASTex, 34 pages, 13 postscript figures. Accepted for publication by The Astronomical Journa

A novel algorithm for dynamic student profile adaptation based on learning styles

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.E-learning recommendation systems are used to enhance student performance and knowledge by providing tailor- made services based on the students’ preferences and learning styles, which are typically stored in student profiles. For such systems to remain effective, the profiles need to be able to adapt and reflect the students’ changing behaviour. In this paper, we introduce new algorithms that are designed to track student learning behaviour patterns, capture their learning styles, and maintain dynamic student profiles within a recommendation system (RS). This paper also proposes a new method to extract features that characterise student behaviour to identify students’ learning styles with respect to the Felder-Silverman learning style model (FSLSM). In order to test the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, we present a series of experiments that use a dataset of real students to demonstrate how our proposed algorithm can effectively model a dynamic student profile and adapt to different student learning behaviour. The results revealed that the students could effectively increase their learning efficiency and quality for the courses when the learning styles are identified, and proper recommendations are made by using our method

Roles of the color antisymmetric ghost propagator in the infrared QCD

The results of Coulomb gauge and Landau gauge lattice QCD simulation do not agree completely with continuum theory. There are indications that the ghost propagator in the infrared region is not purely color diagonal as in high energy region. After presenting lattice simulation of configurations produced with Kogut-Susskind fermion (MILC collaboration) and those with domain wall fermion (RBC/UKQCD collaboration), I investigate in triple gluon vertex and the ghost-gluon-ghost vertex how the square of the color antisymmetric ghost contributes. Then the effect of the vertex correction to the gluon propagator and the ghost propagator is investigated. Recent Dyson-Schwinger equation analysis suggests the ghost dressing function $G(0)=$ finite and no infrared enhancement or $\alpha_G=0$. But the ghost propagator renormalized by the loop containing a product of color antisymmetric ghost is expected to behave as $_r =-\frac{G(q^2)}{q^2}$ with $G(q^2)\propto q^{-2(1+\alpha_G)}$ with $\alpha_G = 0.5$, if the fixed point scenario is valid. I interpret the $\alpha_G=0$ solution should contain a vertex correction. The infrared exponent of our lattice Landau gauge gluon propagator of the RBC/UKQCD is $\kappa=\alpha_G=-0.5$ and that of MILC is about -0.7. The implication for the Kugo-Ojima color confinement criterion, QCD effective coupling and the Slavnov identity are given.Comment: 13 pages 10 figures, references added and revised. version to be published in Few-Body System