Challenges for Distance Education: A cultural analytic perspective on asynchronous online courses in Sweden

Increasingly popular, distance education has been researched from many angles, but studies done from a cultural analytic perspective are rare. Most studies up to this point have focused on the pedagogical perspective. This thesis aims to investigate challenges faced by different stakeholders in distance education, including online course promoters, teachers, and students, from a cultural analytic perspective. According to empirical materials, I would suggest that various gaps exist in asynchronous online courses which go unnoticed, but which greatly impede student learning performance. These gaps exist in all areas of distance education, including: the sensory experience, online communication, between mind and body as well as the assumptions and expectations for and knowledge of distance education. If these gaps were reduced, distance education would be more effective and appealing

CPCP violation in charmed hadron decays into neutral kaons

We find a new $CP$ violating effect in charmed hadron decays into neutral kaons, which is induced by the interference between the Cabibbo-favored and doubly Cabibbo-suppressed amplitudes with the $K^{0}-\overline K^{0}$ mixing. It is estimated to be of order of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-3})$, much larger than the direct $CP$ asymmetry, but missed in the literature. To reveal this new $CP$ violation effect, we propose a new observable, the difference of the $CP$ asymmetries in the $D^{+}\to \pi^{+}K_S^0$ and $D_{s}^{+}\to K^{+} K_S^0$ modes. Once the new effect is determined by experiments, the direct $CP$ asymmetry then can be extracted and used to search for new physics.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the proceeding of The 15th International Conference on Flavor Physics & CP Violation, 5-9 June 2017, Prague, Czech Republi

Joint resummation for pion wave function and pion transition form factor

We construct an evolution equation for the pion wave function in the $k_T$ factorization theorem, whose solution sums the mixed logarithm $\ln x\ln k_T$ to all orders, with $x$ ($k_T$) being a parton momentum fraction (transverse momentum). This joint resummation induces strong suppression of the pion wave function in the small $x$ and large $b$ regions, $b$ being the impact parameter conjugate to $k_T$, and improves the applicability of perturbative QCD to hard exclusive processes. The above effect is similar to those from the conventional threshold resummation for the double logarithm $\ln^2 x$ and the conventional $k_T$ resummation for $\ln^2 k_T$. Combining the evolution equation for the hard kernel, we are able to organize all large logarithms in the $\gamma^{\ast} \pi^{0} \to \gamma$ scattering, and to establish a scheme-independent $k_T$ factorization formula. It will be shown that the significance of next-to-leading-order contributions and saturation behaviors of this process at high energy differ from those under the conventional resummations. It implies that QCD logarithmic corrections to a process must be handled appropriately, before its data are used to extract a hadron wave function. Our predictions for the involved pion transition form factor, derived under the joint resummation and the input of a non-asymptotic pion wave function with the second Gegenbauer moment $a_2=0.05$, match reasonably well the CLEO, BaBar, and Belle data.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figure

Synthesis and crystal structure of the first 6a-thiathiophthen metal complex [Mo(CO)_5PPh_(2]2)(µ-C_5H_2S_3)

The first 6a-thiathiophthen metal complex was prepared by treating M(CO_)5[PPh_2CS_2CH_2C≡CH] with a catalytic amount of secondary amine or tertiary amine; the structure of the 6a-thiathiophthen molybdenum complex is confirmed by an X-ray diffraction analysis

Non-dipolar Wilson links for transverse-momentum-dependent wave functions

We propose a new definition of a transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) wave function with simpler soft subtraction for $k_T$ factorization of hard exclusive processes. The un-subtracted wave function involves two pieces of non-light-like Wilson links oriented in different directions, so that the rapidity singularity appearing in usual $k_T$ factorization is regularized, and the pinched singularity from Wilson-link self-energy corrections is alleviated to a logarithmic one. In particular no soft function is needed, when the two pieces of Wilson links are orthogonal to each other. We show explicitly at one-loop level that the simpler definition with the non-dipolar Wilson links exhibits the same infrared behavior as the one with the dipolar Wilson links and complicated soft subtraction. It is pointed out that both definitions reduce to the naive TMD wave function as the non-light-like Wilson links approach to the light cone. Their equivalence is then extended to all orders by considering the evolution in the Wilson-link rapidity.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, version to appear in JHE