Remarks on branes, fluxes, and soft SUSY breaking

We review recent work identifying soft SUSY-breaking terms in local type II string models with branes and magnetic fluxes. We then make a new observation about the configuration space of D-branes in Calabi-Yau backgrounds, and identify vevs for nonperturbative charged hypermultiplets in Calabi-Yau backgrounds with N=2 Fayet-Iliopoulos terms.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, uses ws-procs9x6.cls, contribution to conference proceedings for QTS

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PRICES PRODUCERS RECEIVE FOR HOGS: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF KILLSHEET AND SURVEY DATA

This paper evaluates the results of a survey of Iowa pork producers, examining potential price discrimination by packers. Prices varied greatly across producers, and the examined variables explain just over half of the variation. Factors under the producer's control were the most significant variables and accounted for the vast majority of the explainable difference in price among producers. Packer buying systems also accounted for some difference in producer prices. Finally, variables related to operation size, while statistically significant, increased the explanatory values of the equation very little. KEYWORDS: Market access, carcass merit, hog marketing, price determination, price discrimination

EXTENSION'S RESPONSE TO UNDERSTANDING EVOLVING LIVESTOCK MARKET SIGNALS: IOWA'S EXPERIENCE

Livestock Production/Industries, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Less but Better? Teaching Maths in Further Education and Collateral Growth

The paper presents and explores the experience of maths students studying in a context shaped by a core concept maths curriculum. The three vignettes that illuminate experience are drawn from a larger research project that worked with five teachers and 630 learners aged 16−18 in Further Education classrooms in England. Analysis involved distinguishing different understandings of being good at maths, different views of a good maths curriculum and identifying enablers and barriers to being a ‘successful’ maths student. Dewey’s ideas about focused experience and collateral learning were used to deepen this analysis. The paper reports a surprising finding. In some cases, students recognize the positive impact learning maths had on developing their wider human capabilities. Maths teachers in England, working in the context of ‘new public management’, may find reasons to take heart from the accounts of teaching and learning presented. For the international reader who is grappling with the challenge of reengaging maths students, the accounts of what matters to students could spur a reconsideration of priorities and practice