The relationship between class participation and law students' learning, engagement and stress: Do demographics matter?

Student participation in the classroom has long been regarded as an important means of increasing student engagement and enhancing learning outcomes by promoting active learning. However, the approach to class participation common in U.S. law schools, commonly referred to as the Socratic method, has been criticised for its negative impacts on student wellbeing. A multiplicity of American studies have identified that participating in law class discussions can be alienating, intimidating and stressful for some law students, and may be especially so for women, and students from minority backgrounds. Using data from the Law School Student Assessment Survey (LSSAS), conducted at UNSW Law School in 2012, this Chapter provides preliminary insights into whether assessable class participation (ACP) at an Australian law school is similarly alienating and stressful for students, including the groups identified in the American literature. In addition, we compare the responses of undergraduate Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and graduate Juris Doctor (JD) students. The LSSAS findings indicate that most respondents recognise the potential learning and social benefits associated with class participation in legal education, but remain divided over their willingness to participate. Further, in alignment with general trends identified in American studies, LLB students, women, international students, and non-native English speakers perceive they contribute less frequently to class discussions than JD students, males, domestic students, and native English speakers, respectively. Importantly, the LSSAS indicates students are more likely to be anxious about contributing to class discussions if they are LLB students (compared to their JD counterparts), and if English is not their first language (compared to native English speakers). There were no significant differences in students’ self-reported anxiety levels based on gender, which diverges from the findings of American research.

Applications of dimensional reduction to electroweak and QCD matter

When heated to high temperatures, the behavior of matter changes dramatically. The standard model fields go through phase transitions, where the strongly interacting quarks and gluons are liberated from their confinement to hadrons, and the Higgs field condensate melts, restoring the electroweak symmetry. The theoretical framework for describing matter at these extreme conditions is thermal field theory, combining relativistic field theory and quantum statistical mechanics. For static observables the physics is simplified at very high temperatures, and an effective three-dimensional theory can be used instead of the full four-dimensional one via a method called dimensional reduction. In this thesis dimensional reduction is applied to two distinct problems, the pressure of electroweak theory and the screening masses of mesonic operators in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The introductory part contains a brief review of finite-temperature field theory, dimensional reduction and the central results, while the details of the computations are contained in the original research papers. The electroweak pressure is shown to converge well to a value slightly below the ideal gas result, whereas the pressure of the full standard model is dominated by the QCD pressure with worse convergence properties. For the mesonic screening masses a small positive perturbative correction is found, and the interpretation of dimensional reduction on the fermionic sector is discussed.

A model based factorization approach for dense 3D recovery from monocular video

Feature track matrix factorization based methods have been attractive solutions to the Structure-front-motion (Sfnl) problem. Group motion of the feature points is analyzed to get the 3D information. It is well known that the factorization formulations give rise to rank deficient system of equations. Even when enough constraints exist, the extracted models are sparse due the unavailability of pixel level tracks. Pixel level tracking of 3D surfaces is a difficult problem, particularly when the surface has very little texture as in a human face. Only sparsely located feature points can be tracked and tracking error arc inevitable along rotating lose texture surfaces. However, the 3D models of an object class lie in a subspace of the set of all possible 3D models. We propose a novel solution to the Structure-from-motion problem which utilizes the high-resolution 3D obtained from range scanner to compute a basis for this desired subspace. Adding subspace constraints during factorization also facilitates removal of tracking noise which causes distortions outside the subspace. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our formulation by extracting dense 3D structure of a human face and comparing it with a well known Structure-front-motion algorithm due to Brand.

Ion Transport in a Polymer-Plastic Solid Soft Matter Electrolyte in the Light of Solvent Dynamics and Ion Association

Ion transport in a recently demonstrated promising soft matter solid plastic-polymer electrolyte is discussed here in the context of solvent dynamics and ion association. The plastic-polymer composite electrolytes display liquid-like ionic conductivity in the solid state,compliable mechanical strength (similar to 1 MPa), and wide electrochemical voltage stability (>= 5 V). Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) dispersed in lithium perchlorate (LiClO4)-succinonitrile (SN) was chosen as the model system for the study (abbreviated LiClO4-SN:PAN). Systematic observation of various mid-infrared isomer and ion association bands as a function of temperature and polyme concentration shows an effective increase in trans conformer concentration along with free Li+ ion concentration. This strongly supports the view that enhancement in LiClO4-SN:PAN ionic conductivity over the neat plastic electrolyte (LiClO4-SN) is due to both increase in charge mobility and concentration. The ionic conductivity and infrared spectroscopy studies are supported by Brillouin light scattering. For the LiClO4-SN:PAN composites, a peak at 17 GHz was observed in addition to the normal trans-gauche isomerism (as in neat SN) at 12 GHz. The fast process is attributed to increased dynamics of those SN molecules whose energy barrier of transition from gauche to trans has reduced under influences induced by the changes in temperature and polymer concentration. The observations from ionic conductivity, spectroscopy, and light scattering studies were further supplemented by temperature dependent nuclear magnetic resonance H-1 and Li-7 line width measurements.

Elastic behaviour of matter under very high pressures - Uniform compression

In order to study the elastic behaviour of matter when subjected to very large pressures, such as occur for example in the interior of the earth, and to provide an explanation for phenomena like earthquakes, it is essential to be able to calculate the values of the elastic constants of a substance under a state of large initial stress in terms of the elastic constants of a natural or stress-free state. An attempt has been made in this paper to derive expressions for these quantities for a substance of cubic symmetry on the basis of non-linear theory of elasticity and including up to cubic powers of the strain components in the strain energy function. A simple method of deriving them directly from the energy function itself has been indicated for any general case and the same has been applied to the case of hydrostatic compression. The notion of an effective elastic energy-the energy require to effect an infinitesimal deformation over a state of finite strain-has been introduced, the coefficients in this expression being the effective elastic constants. A separation of this effective energy function into normal co-ordinates has been given for the particular case of cubic symmetry and it has been pointed out, that when any of such coefficients in this normal form becomes negative, elastic instability will set in, with associated release of energy.

Phosphorus and organic matter discharged by Finnish rivers to the Baltic Sea

Tiivistelmä: Suomen jokivesien Itämereen kuljettama fosfori ja orgaaninen aine

Interfacial microrheology as a tool to study viscoelastic transitions in nanoconfined soft matter

We present a method to perform in situ microrheological measurements on monolayers of soft materials undergoing viscoelastic transitions under compression. Using the combination of a Langmuir trough mounted on the inverted microscope stage of a laser scanning confocal microscope we track the motion of individual fluorescent quantum dots partly dispersed in monolayers spread at the air-water interface. From the calculated mean square displacement of the probe particles and extending a well established scheme of the generalized Stokes-Einstein relation in bulk to the interface we arrive at the viscoelastic modulus for the respective monolayers as a function of surface density. Measurements on monolayers of glassy as well as nonglassy polymers and a standard fatty acid clearly show sensitivity of our technique to subtle variations, in the viscoelastic properties of the highly confined materials under compression. Evidence for possible spatial variations of such viscoelastic properties at a given surface density for the fatty acid monolayer is also provided.

A semi-classical model of the electron containing tachyonic matter

It is shown that the mass of the electron could be conceived as the energy associated with its spinning motion and the angular velocity is such that the linear velocities at the surface exceed the velocity of light; this in fact accounts for its stability against the centrifugal forces in the core region.

With Good Reputation Size Does not Matter: Issue Frequency and the Determinants of Debt Maturity

This paper examines empirically the effect firm reputation has on the determinants of debt maturity. Utilising data from European primary bond market between 1999 and 2005, I find that the maturity choice of issuers with a higher reputation is less sensitive to macroeconomic conditions, market credit risk-premiums, prevailing firm credit quality and size of the debt issue. The annualised coupon payments are shown to be a significant factor in determining the debt maturity and reveal a monotonously increasing relationship between credit quality and debt maturity once controlled for. Finally, I show that issuers lacking a credit rating have an implied credit quality positioned between investment-grade and speculative-grade debt.

NMR relaxation study of disorder in condensed matter: solid solutions of betaine phosphate and phosphite

Proton NMR relaxation measurements have been carried out in anti-ferroelectric Betaine phosphate (BP), ferroelectric Betaine phosphite (BPI) and the mixed system BPI(1-x)BPx, at 11.4MHz and 23.3MHz from 300K to 80K for x=0.0, 0.25, 0.45, 0.85, and 1.0. The temperature dependence of spin lattice relaxation time T, exhibits two minima as expected from the BPP model in BP and BPI. The Larmor frequency dependence of T, in the mixed system is rather unusual and exhibits different slopes for the low temperature wings at the two frequencies, which is a clear experimental evidence of the presence of different methyl groups with different activation energies (E-a) indicating disorder.

Soft condensed matter -A special issue of solid state communications -Foreword

It is a policy of Solid State Communications’ Executive Editorial Board to organize special issues from time to time on topics of current interests. The present issue focuses on soft condensed matter, a rapidly developing and diverse area of importance not only for the basic science, but also for its potential applications. The ten articles in this issue are intended to give the readers a snapshot of some latest developments in soft condensed matter, mainly from the point of view of basic science. As the special issues are intended for a broad audience, most articles are short reviews that introduce the readers to the relevant topics. Hence this special issue can be especially helpful to readers who might not be specialists in this area but would like to have a quick grasp on some of the interesting research directions.

Interfacial microrheology as a tool to study viscoelastic transitions in nanoconfined soft matter

We present a method to perform in situ microrheological measurements on monolayers of soft materials undergoing viscoelastic transitions under compression. Using the combination of a Langmuir trough mounted on the inverted microscope stage of a laser scanning confocal microscope we track the motion of individual fluorescent quantum dots partly dispersed in monolayers spread at the air-water interface. From the calculated mean square displacement of the probe particles and extending a well established scheme of the generalized Stokes-Einstein relation in bulk to the interface we arrive at the viscoelastic modulus for the respective monolayers as a function of surface density. Measurements on monolayers of glassy as well as nonglassy polymers and a standard fatty acid clearly show sensitivity of our technique to subtle variations, in the viscoelastic properties of the highly confined materials under compression. Evidence for possible spatial variations of such viscoelastic properties at a given surface density for the fatty acid monolayer is also provided.

Polarization relaxation, dielectric dispersion, and solvation dynamics in dense dipolar liquid

A unified treatment of polarization relaxation, dielectric dispersion and solvation dynamics in a dense, dipolar liquid is presented. It is shown that the information of solvent polarization relaxation that is obtained by macroscopic dielectric dispersion experiments is not sufficient to understand dynamics of solvation of a newly created ion or dipole. In solvation, a significant contribution comes from intermediate wave vector processes which depend critically on the short range (nearest‐neighbor) spatial and orientational order that are present in a dense, dipolar liquid. An analytic expression is obtained for the time dependent solvation energy that depends, in addition to the translational and rotational diffusion coefficients of the liquid, on the ratio of solute–solvent molecular sizes and on the microscopic structure of the polar liquid. Mean spherical approximation (MSA) theory is used to obtain numerical results for polarization relaxation, for wave vector and frequency dependent dielectric function and for time dependent solvation energy. We find that in the absence of translational contribution, the solvation of an ion is, in general, nonexponential. In this case, the short time decay is dominated by the longitudinal relaxation time but the long time decay is dominated by much slower large wave vector processes involving nearest‐neighbor molecules. The presence of a significant translational contribution drastically alters the decay behavior. Now, the long‐time behavior is given by the longitudinal relaxation time constant and the short time dynamics is controlled by the large wave vector processes. Thus, although the continuum model itself is conceptually wrong, a continuum model like result is recovered in the presence of a sizeable translational contribution. The continuum model result is also recovered in the limit of large solute to solvent size ratio. In the opposite limit of small solute size, the decay is markedly nonexponential (if the translational contribution is not very large) and a complete breakdown of the continuum model takes place. The significance of these results is discussed.

Correlations and the Ring-Kinetic Equation in Dense Sheared Granular Flows

A formal way of deriving fluctuation-correlation relations in dense sheared granular media, starting with the Enskog approximation for the collision integral in the Chapman-Enskog theory, is discussed. The correlation correction to the viscosity is obtained using the ring-kinetic equation, in terms of the correlations in the hydrodynamic modes of the linearised Enskog equation. It is shown that the Green-Kubo formula for the shear viscosity emerges from the two-body correlation function obtained from the ring-kinetic equation.