8,135 research outputs found
An (unintentional) façade of democratic debate
A review of the Colombian peace process. The article considers the actual extent of debate in a series of meetings and conferences in the UK that were held to analyse the peace process. The argument is put forward that the illegality, and thereby absence, of FARC at these meetings has contributed towards a distortion of events and arguments. Furthermore, it has left the current Colombian administration appearing as a far more inclusive and democratic institution than might be the case. The article welcomes the the interaction of the Colombian government in these UK meetings but suggests that measures are taken: i) to prevent the marginalization of FARC from democratic debate; ii) to limit the potential to breach Human Rights by the Colombian state; and iii) to define the difference between political violence and violent criminality
Galaxy Environments in DEEP2: The Birth of the Red Sequence
The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey is the first project to study the distant
Universe by obtaining a data set comparable in size and nature to recent
generations of local surveys. Made possible by the largest ground-based optical
telescopes and new instrumentation, DEEP2 was designed to measure both the
properties of galaxies at z ~ 1 and their distribution in space, enabling a
number of unique tests of galaxy formation and evolution. Here, we first
provide an overview of the survey, including the planned second major data
release scheduled for early 2007. We then present new results from DEEP2
pertaining to the relationship between galaxy properties and environment at
intermediate redshift, revealing where and when typical ~L* galaxies began
quenching and moved onto the red sequence in significant number.Comment: 2 pages (1 figure), for the IAU Symposium 235, Galaxies Across the
Hubble Time, J. Palous & F. Combes, eds. Uses iaus.cls, include
The Impact of Content Mastery on Sequential Standards
Mastery of P-12 academic standards is based on a learning process that is sequential and that can be broken into key components for varying students. Key ideas need to be learned before others can be mastered and it is important to know which key ideas are needed before others can be presented. The common problem for students in mathematics is that the content scaffolds and for the teacher, it can be a difficult decision of when to proceed and when not to. Yet, high stakes testing mandates a fast pace of instruction which leaves many students chronically behind. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between passing scaffolded math standards and passing subsequent standards. Archival data from 481 sixth, seventh, and eighth grades were analyzed using chi-square. Results revealed that mastery of key concepts is needed before subsequent, higher–order applications can be learned
The spatial structure of networks
We study networks that connect points in geographic space, such as
transportation networks and the Internet. We find that there are strong
signatures in these networks of topography and use patterns, giving the
networks shapes that are quite distinct from one another and from
non-geographic networks. We offer an explanation of these differences in terms
of the costs and benefits of transportation and communication, and give a
simple model based on the Monte Carlo optimization of these costs and benefits
that reproduces well the qualitative features of the networks studied.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Optimal design of spatial distribution networks
We consider the problem of constructing public facilities, such as hospitals,
airports, or malls, in a country with a non-uniform population density, such
that the average distance from a person's home to the nearest facility is
minimized. Approximate analytic arguments suggest that the optimal distribution
of facilities should have a density that increases with population density, but
does so slower than linearly, as the two-thirds power. This result is confirmed
numerically for the particular case of the United States with recent population
data using two independent methods, one a straightforward regression analysis,
the other based on density dependent map projections. We also consider
strategies for linking the facilities to form a spatial network, such as a
network of flights between airports, so that the combined cost of maintenance
of and travel on the network is minimized. We show specific examples of such
optimal networks for the case of the United States.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
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