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This book resembles a textbook in educational psychology, but it is unique in its basis in constructivist views and philosophy (particularly those that are social constructivist). The book has 14 chapters divided into five major sections. Chapter 1, "Starting With You," which is not part of any section, describes the overall purposes of the book. Section 1, "Human Change," includes (2) "Learning, in School and Out"; (3) "Thinking About Thinking"; and (4) "Developmental Change." Section 2, "Relationships," includes (5) "What Teachers Do," (6) "Motivating and Managing Your Class," and (7) "Among Classmates and Parents." Section 3, "The Social and Cultural Context," features (8) "The Meaning of Classroom Talk," (9) Gender and Culture as Influences on Learning," and (10) "Teaching Students with Special Needs." Section 4, "Identifying Success and Value in Teaching," includes (11) "Assessing Students' Learning," (12) "Hearing Distant Voices: Interpreting Educational Research," and (13) "Care and Justice in Teaching and Learning." Section 5, "Reflections," offers (14) "Looking Ahead." (SM)

More than 300 graduate reading programs in the United States and Canada are listed in this book. The programs are arranged alphabetically by state, with Canadian institutions listed separately. The programs within each state or province are then arranged alphabetically by institution. Each listing provides the name and address of the program director, a program overview, degrees offered by the institution, the number of students enrolled in the graduate program, application procedures, tuition fees, financial assistance available, and the name, rank, area of specialization, and percentage of time spent in the reading program for each faculty member working in the program. The volume concludes with a faculty index. (FL)

In the preceding chapters, we have studied the creation of new businesses as independent startups. However, we recognize that many well-established and large companies do, in fact, engage in entrepreneurial activity. Corporate entre¬preneurship (CE) may be broadly viewed as (1) the creation of new businesses within existing organizations, either through internal innovation or joint ventures and alli¬ances, or (2) the transformation of organizations through strategic renewal. Large firms embark on CE for various reasons (why) and using various approaches (how), which we will now explore in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurs invest much time, money, and personal energy into building their ventures; at some point in the future, adequate rewards are expected. The process of turning some of the value created into hard cash for the entrepreneur is referred to as harvesting. It is in effect the realization of one of the key objectives of venturing - the increase in personal wealth and financial well-being. Harvesting should never be thought of as a terminal activity, or the end of the process. Rather, it is a necessary step toward recycling the entrepreneurial talent and capital, offering the entrepreneur the opportunity to take his or her money out, partly or entirely, to pursue other plans and ventures. It is a starting point rather than an end point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental characteristic of many entrepreneurial ventures is the imbalance between the resources currently controlled and those needed to capitalize on the opportunities. Few ventures truly face pure financing problems, but rather more complex "resourcing" issues, i.e., how to gain access to the extensive collection of resources needed to succeed, such as management skills, distribution channels, networks, technology, and the like. In many instances, money will indeed provide access to those resources. But when there are funding constraints, where access to finance is not unlimited or is associated with huge costs, it becomes critical to use the fundraising exercise in a more creative manner, as a holistic approach to resourcing the firm. This chapter will focus on how to develop a proper financing strategy for early-stage, higher risk ventures, which investors to target, and how to develop a compelling investment case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising opportunity has been identified, a skilled team assembled, a compelling business plan written, and the initial financing secured. Yet this is not the time to lean back - the journey has just started. Now, the venture is supposed to grow and leverage its first sales. Growth, however, entails new challenges and requirements. In this chapter we look at the leadership and management qualities of the new venture team and the organization-building capability required of the entrepreneurial manager. In addition, we will explore different growth strategies and highlight some challenges to be mastered along the way, which are also evident in the case examples included here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having great ideas and singling out the great opportunity is only the first step in a long journey to a viable venture. The next steps typically need some planning, mostly packaged into what will eventually become a "business plan." The exercise of putting a business plan together is a helpful one, and by the end of the process you will have a document that helps you and potential investors think about how promising the venture truly is. This chapter covers the whys and how-tos of a business plan in depth, looking at the main parts and why they are important, as well as what to do with your business plan. In addition, we will look at other common themes characteristic of the early phase of technology startups such as product development and marketing and communications strategy, as well as issues of intellectual property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All ventures start out as an idea. However, a good idea is not necessarily a good opportunity and thus does not necessarily lead to a good venture. Hence, the successful entrepreneur-to-be should be on the lookout for good opportunities rather than good ideas. But what turns a good idea into a good opportunity? How exactly is a good opportunity defined, i.e., how do we find out that it is a good opportunity, and where are the potential sources of promising ventures? In this chapter we look at where opportunities come from and whether you should sit around waiting for "lightning to strike." We also describe what a window of opportunity is and how to verify quickly whether an idea has promise, before considering whether you should tell anyone else about your idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Back in 1992 it was proposed that nanoparticles of layered compounds will be unstable against folding and will close up into fullerene-like structures (IF) and nanotubes. In the years that followed nanotubes and fullerene-like structures were synthesized from numerous compounds with layered structure. More recently, crystalline and noncrystalline nanotubes of compounds with a 3D, i.e., quasi-isotropic lattice have been intensively investigated. In view of their eminent applications potential, much effort and substantial progress has been achieved in the scaling-up of the synthesis of inorganic nanotubes and fullerene-like nanoparticles of WS2 and MoS2 and also other compounds. Early on it was suggested that hollow nano-octahedra consisting of a few hundred MoS2 moieties make the true analogs of C60, etc. This notion has been advanced considerably in recent years through a combined experimental-theoretical effort. Substantial progress has been accomplished in the use of such nanoparticles for tribological applications and lately for impact resilient nanocomposites. These tests indicated that IF-MoS2 and IF-WS2 are heading for large-scale applications in the automotive, machining, aerospace, electronics, defense, medical and numerous other kinds of industries. A few products based on these nanoparticles have been recently commercialized by "ApNano Materials, Inc" ("NanoMaterials, Ltd.", see also www.apnano.com). Most recently, a manufacturing facility for the commercialization of these nanomaterials has been erected and sales of the product started. Novel applications of inorganic nanotubes and fullerene-like nanoparticles in the fields of catalysis; microelectronics; Li rechargeable batteries; medical and optoelectronics will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the high application potential of carbon nanotubes, the search for other quasi one-dimensional nanostructures has been pursued both by theoretical and experimental approaches. The investigations soon concentrated on layered inorganic materials, which may be exfoliated and rolled up to tubular and scroll-type forms. The present chapter reviews the basic design principles, which govern the search for novel inorganic nanostructures on the basis of energy- and strain-related stability criteria. These principles are then applied to the prediction and characterisation of the properties of non-carbon, elemental and binary nanotubes derived from layered boride, nitride, and sulfide bulk phases. Finally, the present chapter introduces examples, where one-dimensional nanostructures such as tubes and scrolls have successfully been constructed from non-layered materials, especially from oxides. Examples for the experimental verification of the predicted structures are given throughout the discussion and impressively underline the predictive power of today's materials modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution we present a cognitively motivated approach to an interactive assistance system for spatio-temporal planning tasks. Since mental spatial problem solving is known to be based on hierarchical representations, we argue for region-based representation structures that allow for structuring a complex spatio-temporal problem such that exploring and communicating alternative solutions to a given problem are easily enabled. In this way, spatio-temporal constraints can interactively be dealt with to find appropriate solutions for a given planning problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical framework and preliminary results of various evaluation measures of a German program to improve the quality of physics instruction are presented. The major emphasis of the program is to develop teachers' thinking about good instruction as an indispensable prerequisite for improved teaching behaviour. It turns out that students' development of affective variables (such as their self-assessed competence) appears to be more pleasing for the "Physics in Context" group than for the control group. Instruction within the program seems to include a significantly higher amount of inquiry activities than for the control group. The teachers rate their participation in the project rather positively [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closed-loop active flow control (CLAFC), the capability to estimate, efficiently alter and maintain a flow state, relies on the control authority of available actuators as a primary enabling technology. The requirements from the actuation systems are outlined and a critical review of available actuation technology is offered. Since the relevance of a given actuator depends on the application, separation control is considered over a wide range of operational conditions. Unsteady zero-net-mass-flux (ZNMF) periodic excitation was proven to be significantly more effective than steady blowing and simpler to apply than steady suction for the control of boundary layer separation. Furthermore, it can utilize flow instability as efficiency magnifier. When generated by Piezo-fluidic actuators, it has a bandwidth that is suitable for a wide range of feedback control applications. However, the current state-of-the-art ZNMF actuators lack, for certain applications, sufficient control authority. Therefore, effective methods for coupling the excitation to the most unstable modes of the flow should preferably be sought after and utilized. A new robust and simple actuator concept that combines steady suction and pulsed blowing is presented. It can generate wide band-width near sonic oscillations. Its performance was modeled and validated in several scales. The valve design allows highly efficient operation, not nullifying the favorable effects of future CLAFC schemes. Three-dimensional (3D) excitation modes should be explored, as the flow naturally becomes 3D even if the baseline flow and the excitation are nominally two-dimensional (2D). To be for industrial applications, overall system efficiency should always be assessed, not only the improvement in aerodynamic performance. Three performance based criteria for comparing different actuation concepts are presented and discussed. The first criterion evaluates the actuator based on its force or linear momentum generation capability as it operates in still fluid, while considering its weight, volume and power consumption. The second criterion is simply the actuator peak velocity Mach number relative to the free-stream Mach number, where it is rare to find any benefit from actuator with Mach ratio smaller than 0.1 and/or momentum coefficient smaller than 0.01%. The third, application dependent, criterion is the Aerodynamic figure of merit, an energy efficiency criterion, based on the improvement of the controlled performance (e.g., lift to drag ratio) of a certain application, when the power consumption (and also the weight) of the actuation system are taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter, we first give an introduction to radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. We discuss capabilities and limitations of this technology in a supply chain setting. We then present several current applications of this technology to supply chains to demonstrate best practices and important implementation considerations. Subsequently, we discuss several issues that may hinder widespread RFID implementation in supply chains. We close by deriving several consequences for successful implementation of RFID, and we give guidance on how a company might best benefit from this technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses a tour planning problem, which encompasses weakly specified constraints such as different kinds of activities together with corresponding spatial assignments such as locations and regions. Alternative temporal orders of planed activities together with underspecified spatial assignments available at different levels of granularity lead to a high computational complexity of the given tour planning problem. The paper introduces the results of an exploratory tour planning study and a Region-based Direction Heuristic, derived from the acquired data. A gesture-based interaction model is proposed, which allows structuring the search space by a human user at a high level of abstraction for the subsequent generation of alternative solutions so that the proposed Region-based Direction Heuristic can be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit Suisse, a global financial services provider, is currently reengineering its securities platform. For this purpose, the individual applications are transferred into a process- and service-oriented IT architecture. It is noteworthy that the process models developed in a team-effort by Business and IT are being employed directly for process-driven order processing. The ‘Auftragsmanager' (order manager), developed within Credit Suisse, carries out the actual controlling and monitoring tasks. Implementing the ARIS Process Performance Manager (ARIS PPM) completes the Business Process Management control cycle. Our motivation for re-engineering is our conviction that efficient Process Management relies on transparent processes throughout the entire Process Management control cycle, including design, the straightforward execution by IT systems, and analysis and optimization. Alongside the account of the conceptual and technical implementation of the control cycle, the benefits for operations will be illustrated in a case study on stock market transaction processing [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Tracer studies show that the flow regime may transform from near uniform flow at the starting conditions to non-uniform flow under conditions with severe bioclogging. The mode of observation (flux averages or point measurements) thus becomes important. It is proposed that bioclogging may lead to changes in transport patterns as well. A first phase, where the dispersivity increases approximately linearly as the hydraulic conductivity decreases is explained as the result of an increase in the number of microcolonies located strategically in pore throats. A second phase follows, where the capacity for diffusion between the mobile water phase and the immobile biophase has increased, leading to significant tailing in solute breakthrough. A third phase may develop, where preferential flow paths results in fracture-like breakthrough. The results show that calculated changes in bulk hydraulic conductivity may be reproducible from experiment to experiment, while, in some cases, and especially those involving point injection of nutrients, the initial heterogeneous distribution of bacteria will affect the development of bioclogging patterns. Key words: bioclogging, tracer studies, riverbank filtration [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wireless data broadcast systems, popular information is repetitively disseminated through possibly multiple communication channels to mobile clients using various types of battery-operated devices. Access latency and tuning time are two conflicting performance metrics used in such systems to measure their efficiency. In practice, different application and usage scenarios may require different performance trade-offs between the two metrics: some may tolerate slightly longer access latencies to benefit from lower energy requirements, while others may favor shorter access latencies at the cost of higher energy expenditures. To provide data broadcast service providers with the freedom to trade-off between both metrics in an adjustable way, we propose a new flexible and parameterizable air-indexing scheme, called FlexInd. FlexInd is a hybrid indexing method that takes advantage of three separate air-indexing approaches, namely (a) no-indexing, (b) exponential indexing, and (c) flexible distributed indexing, to optimize either access latency or tuning time with certain performance guarantees on the other metric. Based on the access latency or energy conservation requirements imposed on the system, FlexInd chooses among the three indexing schemes the one which yields the best performance results with the access latency or tuning time bounded by a given limit. A performance study confirms that FlexInd is able to achieve lower average access latencies and tuning times than existing indexing schemes since it provides greater flexibility in trading-off access efficiency for power expenditure and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper announces a new software side-channel attack — enabled by the branch prediction capability common to all modern high-performance CPUs. The penalty paid (extra clock cycles) for a mispredicted branch can be used for cryptanalysis of cryptographic primitives that employ a data-dependent program flow. Analogous to the recently described cache-based side-channel attacks our attacks also allow an unprivileged process to attack other processes running in parallel on the same processor, despite sophisticated partitioning methods such as memory protection, sandboxing or even virtualization. In this paper, we will discuss several such attacks for the example of RSA, and experimentally show their applicability to real systems, such as OpenSSL and Linux. Moreover, we will also demonstrate the strength of the branch prediction side-channel attack by rendering the obvious countermeasure in this context (Montgomery Multiplication with dummy-reduction) as useless. Although the deeper consequences of the latter result make the task of writing an efficient and secure modular exponentiation (or scalar multiplication on an elliptic curve) a challenging task, we will eventually suggest some countermeasures to mitigate branch prediction side-channel attacks. Keywords: Branch Prediction, Modular Exponentiation, Montgomery Multiplication, RSA, Side Channel Analysis, Simultaneous Multi-threading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the new paradigms that have emerged with respect to the infrastructure of capital markets, and explores why Deutsche Börse intends to capitalize on these new developments by establishing an exchange for energy derivatives: (1). Market liberalization makes it feasible to use existing financial instruments for new risk classes in electricity (2). Deutsche Börse intends to utilize its new understanding of its own role and its new capabilities to develop the energy market (3). Deutsche Börse intends to further expand into new markets (4). Deutsche Börse will no longer be an exchange in the traditional sense, but instead a developer and operator of trading platforms in a market economy that has undergone extensive deregulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied nanowires with a GaAs core, covered by an AlGaAs shell, using low temperature cathodoluminescence. The main emission from the core is due to carbon acceptors, though we observe a weak emission from excitons. A general observation is that the emission is much stronger, and more well-defined, from the top half of the nanowire. The AlGaAs shell emission varies in emission energy and spatial origin in an irregular fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pathogenesis of a microbial infection is a complex, dynamic process, constantly evolving within the host. In many instances, the production of virulence determinants is tightly regulated, and their production is modulated in response to the ever-changing environment encountered at the site of infection. It is unlikely that all regulated virulence determinants of a pathogen can be identified in vitro, because it is technically impossible to determine and mimic all of the different environmental stimuli that occur at the site of an infection. This shortcoming hampers our complete understanding of the virulence mechanisms employed by Haemophilus influenzae as well as other human pathogens in general. To overcome this problem, a number of investigators have emphasized the need to study bacterial virulence using organisms engaged in an actual infectious process. Several different methods, such as in vivo expression technology (IVET), signature tagged mutagenesis (STM), differential fluorescence induction (DFI), and microarray analysis, have been created to accomplish this end. Application of these methods to infectious processes caused by various bacterial pathogens has succeeded in identifying collections of genes that define the in vivo lifestyle of a pathogen. These genes can be analyzed and interpreted to gain a deeper understanding of the functions that dictate host specificity, tissue tropism, and disease manifestation (1-6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main challenges for a better understanding of signaling mechanisms in the normal and diseased central nervous system (CNS) is to unravel the molecular basics of function on the cellular and systemic levels. Several important cellular processes, such as proliferation, differentiation, and cell death, are directly or indirectly influenced or even controlled by the activity of ion channels and receptors. The patch-clamp technique has been proven a powerful method for studying functional peculiarities of such channels, which considerably improved our knowledge of mechanisms underlying neuronal excitation and inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep multicolor fields are an important tool to explore the formation and evolution of galaxies out to the highest redshifts and faintest magnitude limits (Ferguson et al. [11]). This is also the aim of the FORS Deep Field (FDF), which has about 5 times the field-size of the two Hubble Deep Fields together and, in addition, contains a relatively bright quasar of 18.5mag at z = 3.36 at its center. A full exploration of the FDF multicolor data requires good photometric redshifts. In this paper we provide an overview of the data, describe our photometric redshift technique and present the redshift distribution in the FDF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coalescence stability of n-decane-in-water emulsions stabilized by native and highly (>90%) acetylated legumin, the 11 S main storage protein from faba beans (Vicia faba L.) has been investigated by analytical ultracentrifugation. The method is based on centrifugation at constant rotor speeds (sufficiently high to produce a detectable amount of separated oil) up to (pseudo-) equilibrium values for all layers. Coalescence pressures are calculated as a measure of coalescence stability. Acetylation of legumin results in a significant increase of the coalescence stability (about three-fold). The coalescence pressure of the emulsion with the native legumin decreases after a storage period of about 2 months. By contrast, the emulsion prepared from the acetylated legumin shows a higher coalescence pressure, even after about 8 months. This observation is in agreement with the storage stability. Initial results from applying sedimentation velocity experiments in connection with the method for characterizing the coalescence stability have provided the following results: i) only the 11-12 S protein component in the starting native legumin solution occurred in the separated continuous phase after (incomplete) demulsification. A 15 S aggregate (11%) could no longer be detected in the separated continuous phase. ii) The 16-17 S aggregation component and a lower molecular weight dissociation product (≤2 S, 25-30%) present in the starting solution of acetylated legumin did not occur in the separated continuous phase, but only an aggregated 22-26 S component. This supports the conclusion for a preferred adsorption of low molecular components during preparation of the emulsion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution, recent developments in phase sensitive measurements of optical fields are reviewed that present a new tool of spectroscopic investigations and allow to characterize ultrafast dynamics in semiconductors on a femtosecond time-scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the poem "Whale's Song," by Jaroslav Siefert. First Line: I spent only a few days wandering; Last Line: but since the beginning of the world.

A centrifugal method for determining the coalescence stability of emulsions by analytical ultracentrifugation under separation of dispersed phase is described. The non-kinetically oriented method involves demulsification up to constant heights (final values) of all the layers. It can be performed in various variants including stepwise centrifugation that provides several final values during one run. On this basis, coalescence pressures are calculated as a measure of coalescence stability. The results obtained are in agreement with the expected behavior of the emulsions. In the case of SDS stabilized n-decane-in-water emulsions without electrolyte four layers are obtained that exist only during centrifugation under a sufficient centrifugal force, but not under gravity. A proof is given of a pressure barrier at the transition of the non-transparent to the transparent emulsion. The possible influence of the particle size on the coalescence pressures is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We undertake a thorough complexity study of the following fundamental optimization problem, known as the ℓp-norm shortest extended GCD multiplier problem: given a1,..., an ∈ ℤ, find an ℓp-norm shortest gcd multiplier fora1,..., an, i.e., a vector x ∈ ℤn with minimum $$ \left( {\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n {x_i ^p } } \right)^{1/p} $$ satisfying $$ \sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n {x_i a_i = \gcd (a_1 ...,a_n )} $$. First, we prove that the shortest GCD multiplier problem (in its feasibility recognition form) is NP-complete for every ℓp-norm with p ∈ ℤ. This gives an affirmative answer to a conjecture raised by Havas and Majewski. We then strengthen this negative result by ruling out even polynomial-time algorithms which only approximate an ℓp-norm shortest gcd multiplier within a factor $$ n^{1/(p\log ^\gamma n)} $$ for γ an arbitrary small positive constant, under the widely accepted complexity theory assumption $$ NP \nsubseteq DTIME\left( {n^{poly(\log n)} } \right) $$. For positive results we focus on the ℓ2-norm GCD multiplier problem. We show that approximating this problem within a factor of $$ \sqrt n $$ is very unlikely NP-hard by placing it in NP ⋂ coAM through a simple constant-round interactive proof system. This result is complemented by a polynomial-time algorithm which computes an ℓ2-norm shortest gcd multiplier up to a factor of 2(n−1)/2. This study is motivated by the importance of extended gcd calculations in applications in computational algebra and number theory. Our results rest upon the close connection between the hardness of approximation and the theory of interactive proof systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution we presented experimental results for a new type of beamsplitter and an investigation of the reflecting properties of an evanescent light field. The beamsplitter relies on the diffraction of atomic matter waves from a phase grating with triangular phase modulation produced by a combination of a light field and a magnetic field. We observed a momentum splitting of 42 ħk. In addition, we reported on the reflection of atoms from evanescent waves produced by total internal reflection of a laser beam. We demonstrated that the maximum reflection angle could be increased by enhancing the evanescent wave by a planar waveguide and surface plasmons. Furthermore, we examined the number of spontaneous emission processes in the reflection and concluded that for proper choice of parameters only few atoms will undergo spontaneous emission. A next step could be to investigate the coherence of these elements by combining them in a Mach-Zehnder type interferometer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]