An overview of STIP interval 18: September 1985, the G-Z encounter

The primary period of interest during September 1985 is the few days surrounding the ICE encounter with comet Giacobini-Zinner(G-Z) which occurred at 1102 UT on 11 September. To place into perspective the actual in situ observations measured during the comet encounter it is necessary to understand the prevailing solar and interplanetary conditions. Starting two solar rotations prior to and extending through the rotation after the encounter the interplanetary stream structure was very uniform, similar to the 1973-4 long-lived structure. Prior to the arrival of the corotating high-speed stream at 5 UT on 11 September, ICE was already measuring the effects of G-Z on the surrounding interplanetary medium. An overview of available solar, interplanetary, and ICE data for the cometary interval is presented

Development and Validation of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics

As part of a comprehensive effort to transform our undergraduate physics laboratories and evaluate the impacts of these efforts, we have developed the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS). The E-CLASS assesses the changes in students' attitudes about a variety of scientific laboratory practices before and after a lab course and compares attitudes with perceptions of the course grading requirements and laboratory practices. The E-CLASS is designed to give researchers insight into students' attitudes and also to provide actionable evidence to instructors looking for feedback on their courses. We present the development, validation, and preliminary results from the initial implementation of the survey in three undergraduate physics lab courses.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to 2012 PERC Proceeding

Wi-Fi Offload: Tragedy of the Commons or Land of Milk and Honey?

Fueled by its recent success in provisioning on-site wireless Internet access, Wi-Fi is currently perceived as the best positioned technology for pervasive mobile macro network offloading. However, the broad transitions of multiple collocated operators towards this new paradigm may result in fierce competition for the common unlicensed spectrum at hand. In this light, our paper game-theoretically dissects market convergence scenarios by assessing the competition between providers in terms of network performance, capacity constraints, cost reductions, and revenue prospects. We will closely compare the prospects and strategic positioning of fixed line operators offering Wi-Fi services with respect to competing mobile network operators utilizing unlicensed spectrum. Our results highlight important dependencies upon inter-operator collaboration models, and more importantly, upon the ratio between backhaul and Wi-Fi access bit-rates. Furthermore, our investigation of medium- to long-term convergence scenarios indicates that a rethinking of control measures targeting the large-scale monetization of unlicensed spectrum may be required, as otherwise the used free bands may become subject to tragedy-of-commons type of problems.Comment: Workshop on Spectrum Sharing Strategies for Wireless Broadband Services, IEEE PIMRC'13, to appear 201

Geschlechtsspezifische Einkommensunterschiede in Österreich

(no abstract available

Development and results from a survey on students views of experiments in lab classes and research

The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) was developed as a broadly applicable assessment tool for undergraduate physics lab courses. At the beginning and end of the semester, the E-CLASS assesses students views about their strategies, habits of mind, and attitudes when doing experiments in lab classes. Students also reflect on how those same strategies, habits-of-mind, and attitudes are practiced by professional researchers. Finally, at the end of the semester, students reflect on how their own course valued those practices in terms of earning a good grade. In response to frequent calls to transform laboratory curricula to more closely align it with the skills and abilities needed for professional research, the E-CLASS is a tool to assess students' perceptions of the gap between classroom laboratory instruction and professional research. The E-CLASS has been validated and administered in all levels of undergraduate physics classes. To aid in its use as a formative assessment tool, E-CLASS provides all participating instructors with a detailed feedback report. Example figures and analysis from the report are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the E-CLASS. The E-CLASS is actively administered through an online interface and all interested instructors are invited to administer the E-CLASS their own classes and will be provided with a summary of results at the end of the semester