NCEA level 3 economics and economic literacy in introductory economics at University

In 2003, New Zealand significantly reorganised high school education by moving to a standards-based assessment approach. This paper investigates whether the economics standards are associated with economic understanding using 2008-2011 data from students at the University of Waikato. We find that there is significant association between NCEA economics and economic literacy. However, some standards have a much closer association with economic literacy, in particular AS90631 and AS90632. These standards are the only standards associated with economic literacy for both high aptitude and low aptitude students. An optimal high school course in economics should include these standards as a minimum

The role of local structure in dynamical arrest

Amorphous solids, or glasses, are distinguished from crystalline solids by their lack of long-range structural order. At the level of two-body structural correlations, glassformers show no qualitative change upon vitrifying from a supercooled liquid. Nonetheless the dynamical properties of a glass are so much slower that it appears to take on the properties of a solid. While many theories of the glass transition focus on dynamical quantities, a solid's resistance to flow is often viewed as a consequence of its structure. Here we address the viewpoint that this remains the case for a glass. Recent developments using higher-order measures show a clear emergence of structure upon dynamical arrest in a variety of glass formers and offer the tantalising hope of a structural mechanism for arrest. However a rigorous fundamental identification of such a causal link between structure and arrest remains elusive. We undertake a critical survey of this work in experiments, computer simulation and theory and discuss what might strengthen the link between structure and dynamical arrest. We move on to highlight the relationship between crystallisation and glass-forming ability made possible by this deeper understanding of the structure of the liquid state, and emphasize the potential to design materials with optimal glassforming and crystallisation ability, for applications such as phase-change memory. We then consider aspects of the phenomenology of glassy systems where structural measures have yet to make a large impact, such as polyamorphism (the existence of multiple liquid states), aging (the time-evolution of non-equilibrium materials below their glass transition) and the response of glassy materials to external fields such as shear.Comment: 70 page

Heavy MSSM Higgs production at the LHC and decays to WW,ZZ at higher orders

In this paper we discuss the production of a heavy scalar MSSM Higgs boson H and its subsequent decays into pairs of electroweak gauge bosons WW and ZZ. We perform a scan over the relevant MSSM parameters, using constraints from direct Higgs searches and several low-energy observables. We then compare the possible size of the pp -> H -> WW,ZZ cross sections with corresponding Standard Model cross sections. We also include the full MSSM vertex corrections to the H -> WW,ZZ decay and combine them with the Higgs propagator corrections, paying special attention to the IR-divergent contributions. We find that the vertex corrections can be as large as -30% in MSSM parameter space regions which are currently probed by Higgs searches at the LHC. Once the sensitivity of these searches reaches two percent of the SM signal strength the vertex corrections can be numerically as important as the leading order and Higgs self-energy corrections and have to be considered when setting limits on MSSM parameters

Terre d'asile, terre d'exil : l'Europe tsigane

International audienceNous ne voulons pas les voir: c'est ce qu'enseigne l'histoire des rapports entre les Tsiganes et les nations d'Europe. Qu'ils disparaissent hors de notre horizon: vers ces contrées ignorées qui sont supposées être les leurs ou vers celles, plus lointaines encore - là semble-t-il, est leur vraie place - du fantasme et de l'imaginaire! Pourtant c'est le regard européen qui invente les Tsiganes sur la scène de l'histoire. Au xve siècle, des récits de voyageurs occidentaux, pèlerins se rendant en Terre sainte, font mention de leur présence notamment dans le port prospère de Modon (aujourd'hui Methoni), escale entre Venise et Jaffa. Pour les voir, il faut savoir déjà qu'ils existent. Et dans les territoires partagés entre l'Orient et l'Occident, seul le regard occidental les repère. C'est d'ailleurs dans ces régions qu'ils reçoivent les noms qui aujourd 'hui encore nous servent à les désigner