Vigilant servant leadership

Over the last 70 years the Organic community has espoused a set of principles on which to farm, grow and live by. We have actively advocated the lifestyle, technologies and means to resolve many local and global issues which are now the titles of best-selling novels and treatise of recent times, Cradle to Cradle and Biomimicry to name a couple (Benyus 2002, McDonough & Braungart 2002). A carbon economy is exactly what we have espoused for decades. It is nice to feel we were right. Continuing on a theme in the previous editorial, it is also very frustrating times. It is difficult to celebrate when generations of work is not acknowledged, or actively ignored. The symptoms of frustration abound; little or no research funding for Organic systems approaches is proportioned to our value to the food chain or calculated wider environment benefits and definitely less for the organisations that may organise it. While at the primary school level of education we have some success, we find there is diminishing support at the tertiary level. The situation is not better, it is worse. How could this be? How could we have permitted this to happen? Have we been absorbed, or peaked as a culture, accomplishing what we set out to do. I suggest not; the fun is just beginning, and so too the challenges

Towards a two-parameter q-deformation of AdS_3 x S^3 x M^4 superstrings

We construct a two-parameter deformation of the Metsaev-Tseytlin action for supercosets with isometry group of the form G x G. The resulting action is classically integrable and is Poisson-Lie symmetric suggesting that the symmetry of the model is q-deformed, U_q_L(G) x U_q_R(G). Focusing on the cases relevant for strings moving in AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 and AdS_3 x S^3 x S^3 x S^1, we analyze the corresponding deformations of the AdS_3 and S^3 metrics. We also construct a two-parameter $q$-deformation of the u(1) + psu(1|1)^2 x u(1) x R^3-invariant R-matrix and closure condition, which underlie the light-cone gauge S-matrix and dispersion relation of the aforementioned string theories. With the appropriate identification of parameters, the near-BMN limit of the dispersion relation is shown to agree with that found from the deformed supercoset sigma model.Comment: 35 page

Journey together through the three years: An evaluation of the personal tutor system, a student support model embedded in a Bachelor of Nursing programme in New Zealand : A thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Student support is an important part of tertiary education with different models, systems and approaches used internationally and nationally. The personal tutor system is one such approach to student support embedded within a new Bachelor of Nursing curriculum in a New Zealand tertiary institution. Through the personal tutor system students were assigned a lecturer, an academic member of staff, at the commencement of their study, for the duration of their programme. The purpose of the personal tutor system was to offer students support with their academic development and personal guidance that involved: scheduled and ad hoc meetings; monitoring of progress; personal assistance; and directing some students to seek additional support. Using a mixed methods design, the personal tutor system was evaluated at the time the first student cohort completed the new programme. The study focused on factors that influenced the personal tutor system experience. Third year students and lecturers were invited to participate in two‐phase data collection that involved the completion of a questionnaire (third year students: n=86 and lecturers: n=19) followed by semi‐structured interviews (third year students: n=38 and lecturers: n=10). Most participants confirmed that their personal tutor system experience was positive. Interpersonal interaction between students and lecturers was a key factor, as relationships were central to the personal tutor system. Flexibility was important as the personal tutor system was not a one‐size‐fits‐all approach to student support. At times, competing responsibilities gave rise to undue tension particularly with lecturers’ availability and accessibility for support. Unfamiliarity with the personal tutor system guidelines led to different interpretations for use and consequently confusion with support expectations. However, almost all participants acknowledged the value and potential for the personal tutor system in the BN programme. Recommendations for changes to the personal tutor system included: the creation a proportional co‐ordination role for ongoing management; a review of the guidelines that linked to support resources; time integrated into the BN programme for flexible arrangements with meetings and contact; and a time allocation for lecturers’ workload with resourcing for associated responsibilities

An IR Study of the Velocity Structure of the Cometary Compact HII region G29.96-0.02

We have mapped the velocity structure of the cometary compact HII region G29.96-0.02 using long-slit echelle spectra of the HI Br gamma line. This technique detects line emission over a much wider area at the necessary spatial resolution compared to radio recombination line observations. Significant structure in both the velocity centroids and the line widths is seen over the entire nebula. Large line widths are seen ahead of the bow and in the tail which may be due to turbulent motions in shocked and interface regions respectively. We construct analytic models of the density and velocity structure in order to attempt to distinguish between the bow shock and champagne flow models which have been put forward to explain the cometary morphology of many compact HII regions. The bow shock model is unable to explain the large velocity gradient that we see right across the tail of the cometary region which can only be explained by the streaming motions towards low density regions in the champagne model. However, our approximation to the champagne model is also not able to fit all of the features of the data. More realistic versions of this model which include the effects of stellar winds and density gradients may be able to provide a better match to these data.Comment: 19 pages Latex source, 9 postscript figures and macros. gzipped tar set. To appear in Astrophysical Journal, June 20. Also available by anonymous ftp from ftp://aaoepp.aao.gov.au/local/sll/g29.uu (uuencoded gzipped tar file

The Korean armistice of 1953 and its consequences - part I

Hoare: Both North and South Korea claim victory in the Korean War. Yet neither makes much of the ending of the war in July 1953, and both have had problems coming to terms with the reality of the war. The reality is that both suffered so much in a conflict that achieved little that formal celebrations seem inappropriate. Daniels: The outbreak of the Korean war in 1950 and the ferocious fighting which took place affected Britain, whose army took part in the war. This essay records the different shades of opinion expressed in its various newspapers/journals

A Probablistic Origin for a New Class of Bivariate Polynomials

We present here a probabilistic approach to the generation of new polynomials in two discrete variables. This extends our earlier work on the 'classical' orthogonal polynomials in a previously unexplored direction, resulting in the discovery of an exactly soluble eigenvalue problem corresponding to a bivariate Markov chain with a transition kernel formed by a convolution of simple binomial and trinomial distributions. The solution of the relevant eigenfunction problem, giving the spectral resolution of the kernel, leads to what we believe to be a new class of orthogonal polynomials in two discrete variables. Possibilities for the extension of this approach are discussed.Comment: This is a contribution to the Special Issue on Dunkl Operators and Related Topics, published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA