Blue Skies: Education in Second Life

This article examines the educational possibilities of the online environment of Second Life, by Linden Labs. Second Life’s economic growth has attracted the attention of corporations, non-profit organizations and government entities. Unlike traditional web-based instruction, Second Life provides a three-dimensional interface through which teachers and students can enjoy a limited form of eye-contact and body language. It also permits collaboration and learning in groups. The article goes on to discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of using the interface for online learning. It goes on to examine current educational applications and possible future enhancements

On the strength of connectedness of a random hypergraph

Bollob\'{a}s and Thomason (1985) proved that for each $k=k(n) \in [1, n-1]$, with high probability, the random graph process, where edges are added to vertex set $V=[n]$ uniformly at random one after another, is such that the stopping time of having minimal degree $k$ is equal to the stopping time of becoming $k$-(vertex-)connected. We extend this result to the $d$-uniform random hypergraph process, where $k$ and $d$ are fixed. Consequently, for $m=\frac{n}{d}(\ln n +(k-1)\ln \ln n +c)$ and $p=(d-1)! \frac{\ln n + (k-1) \ln \ln n +c}{n^{d-1}}$, the probability that the random hypergraph models $H_d(n, m)$ and $H_d(n, p)$ are $k$-connected tends to $e^{-e^{-c}/(k-1)!}.$Comment: 16 pages, minor revisions from first draf

Understanding poverty in rural Mexico

In situations where inequality and ethnicity are important aspects of poverty, policymakers need to understand the range of strategies people use to survive. Different groups within communities use different livelihood strategies, according to their wealth. To achieve sustainable development, policies must be targeted at their varying needs

Extreme Outages due to Polarization Mode Dispersion

We investigate the dependence of the bit-error-rate (BER) caused by amplifier noise in a linear optical fiber telecommunication system on the fiber birefringence. We show that the probability distribution function (PDF) of BER obtained by averaging over many realizations of birefringent disorder has an extended tail corresponding to anomalously large values of BER. We specifically discuss the dependence of the tail on such details of the pulse detection at the fiber output as "setting the clock" and filtering procedures.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Optics Letter

Preparing Low-Skilled Workers for the Jobs of Tomorrow

Identifies ways for state policies to leverage technology-based economic development by preparing low-skilled workers for middle-skill, technical jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Outlines current state initiatives

References to Extended Literature Review and Rationale

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