FYYSIKA.EE

Elu, loodus, teadus ja tehnoloogia

Blast Dynamics in a Dissipative Gas

by

Author(s): M. Barbier, D. Villamaina, and E. TrizacSelf-similar corrugated instabilities form after intense localized explosions in dissipative gasses.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 214301] Published Tue Nov 17, 2015

The Right Stuff

by


Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: ESA’s operations managers are team leaders, motivating people and managing complex systems and situations on the cutting edge of human exploration

International effort reveals Greenland ice loss

by

One of Greenland’s glaciers is losing five billion tonnes of ice a year to the ocean, according to researchers. While these new findings may be disturbing, they are reinforced by a concerted effort to map changes in ice sheets with different sensors from space agencies around the world.

Chinese painting

by

Earth observation image of the week: a Sentinel-2A false-colour image of Qingdao and surroundings, in China, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme

Exploring the Single Atom Spin State by Electron Spectroscopy

by

Author(s): Yung-Chang Lin, Po-Yuan Teng, Po-Wen Chiu, and Kazu Suenaga<br/>To control the spin state of an individual atom is an ultimate goal for spintronics. A single atom magnet, which may lead to a supercapacity memory device if realized, requires the high-spin state of an isolated individual atom. Here, we demonstrate the realization of well isolated transition metal …<br/>[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 206803] Published Thu Nov 12, 2015

Earth from Space

by


Join us Friday, 13 November, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-2A image of Qingdao and surroundings, in China

The Helmholtz decomposition revisited

by

In electrodynamics it is generally accepted that only vector fields decaying asymptotically more
strongly than the inverse of the distance can be split into an irrotational and a solenoidal part,
although this decomposition can clearly be applied to…

Õpilaste füüsikaalaste uurimistööde konkurss: kokkuvõtted

by

TÜ koolifüüsika keskus ja EFS kutsusid sel kevadel õpilasi üles esitama oma uurimistöösid õpilaste füüsikaalaste uurimistööde konkursile. Laekus kaheksa tööd. Töid hindas žürii koosseisus Henn Voolaid, Andreas Valdmann ja Peeter Tenjes. Töid hindasime kahes kategoorias: ülikoolide teadlaste ja õppejõudude kaasjuhendamisel tehtud tööd ja koolides õpetajate juhendamisel tehtud tööd. Töödes hindasime eelkõige füüsikalist sisu, originaalsust ning analüüsi- ja […]

Near-Field Effects in Mesoscopic Light Transport

by

Author(s): R. Rezvani Naraghi, S. Sukhov, J. J. Sáenz, and A. Dogariu

A new model for light scattering explains why an unexpected amount of light propagates through materials containing densely packed scattering objects.


[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 203903] Published Tue Nov 10, 2015

Isolation ends

by


Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: After more than 270 days of Antarctic isolation, the first plane touches down at Europe’s Concordia research station

Destination: Venus

by


Space Science Image of the Week: These striking images of Venus’ dynamic south pole were recorded by ESA’s Venus Express during its eight years orbiting the planet

Earth from Space

by


Join us Friday, 6 November, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-2A satellite image of Cairo

Invariance of the Noether charge

by

Surprisingly, an interesting property of the Noether charge that it is by itself invariant under the
corresponding symmetry transformation is never discussed in quantum field theory or classical
mechanics textbooks we have checked. This property is a…

Earth from Space

by

ESA’s Sentinel-3 Project Manager Bruno Berruti and Thales Alenia’s Project Manager Yvan Baillion join the show to tell us more about the Sentinel-3A satellite and its mission

Design Considerations for Integrating Twitter into an Online Course

by

While the use of Twitter for communication and assessment activities in online courses is not new, it has not been without its challenges. This is increasingly true of high enrolment courses. The use of a Twitter Evaluation application which leverages a Learning Management System’s (LMS’s) application programming interface (API) provides a solution which reduces the administrative overhead associated with tracking students’ Tweets and allows the grader to focus on the assessment of the Tweets’ quality. Such an application and how it improved the assessment process of grading Tweet events is described. In addition to the technological considerations, the soundness of the Twitter learning design in the course impacts the effectiveness of the Tweet events for learning and enhancing the much needed online social presence. Learning design considerations are also discussed. 

Exploring new learning paradigms in ODL: A reflection on the paper of Barber, Donnelly and Rizvi (2013): “An avalanche is coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead”.

by

The paper of Barber, Donnelly & Rizvi (2013): “An avalanche is coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead”  addresses some significant issues in higher education and poses some challenging questions to ODL (Open and Distance Learning) administrators, policy makers and of course to ODL faculty in general.  Barber et al.’s paper does not specifically address the area of teaching and learning theories, strategies and methodologies per se.  In this paper I would therefore like to reflect on the impact that the contemporary changes and challenges that Barber et al. describes, have on teaching and learning approaches and paradigms.  In doing so I draw on earlier work about future learning paradigms and navigationism (Brown, 2006).  We need a fresh approach and new skills to survive the revolution ahead.  We need to rethink our teaching and learning strategies to be able to provide meaningful learning opportunities in the future that lies ahead.

Mainstreaming Open Textbooks: Educator Perspectives on the Impact of OpenStax College open textbooks

by

This paper presents the results of collaborative research between OpenStax College, who have published 16 open textbooks to date, and the OER Research Hub, a Hewlett funded open research project examining the impact of open educational resources (OER) on learning and teaching.  The paper focuses primarily on the results of two surveys that were conducted with educators during 2013 and 2014/2015. These surveys focused on use and perceptions of OER and OpenStax College materials, financial savings and perceptions of impact on both educators and students.  This paper reports on the research findings related to the impact of OER on educator practice and make a series of specific recommendations based on these findings. 

How factors of personal attitudes and learning environments to affect gender difference toward mobile learning acceptance

by

Mobile technology for learning empowers the shift from traditionally pure instructor-centered classroom teaching to fully learner-centered educational settings. Although mobile learning (m-learning) accessing Internet resources anytime and anywhere, the issue of the relationship between gender perspectives and m-learning environments has been a controversial topic. Therefore, the main research objective of the research is to explore gender differences toward APP-based m-learning environments. Subjects of the study were selected university students who had already used an APP-based m-learning system for one month. A total of one hundred fifty nine valid questionnaires were collected, spilt evenly between female and male students. The statistical analyses lead to significant conclusions. Both female and male learners have highly positive perceptions toward m-learning. Additionally, the proposed research model is an acceptable conceptual model for investigating female and male learners’ attitudes. Furthermore, factors of personal attitudes and learning environments affect gender difference toward m-learning acceptance. 

An Investigation of University Student Readiness towards M-learning using Technology Acceptance Model

by

M-learning is learning delivered via mobile devices and mobile technology. The research indicates that this medium of learning has potential to enhance formal as well as informal learning.  However, acceptance of m-learning greatly depends upon personal attitude of students towards this medium; therefore this study focuses only on the individual context in which role of student’s readiness towards m-learning is investigated using Technology acceptance model (TAM). TAM is the popular choice among the researchers for investigating acceptance of any new technology primarily because of its robust and parsimonious nature. The sample selected for this study consisted of students from the private sector universities in a developing country. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The final results of investigation were based on 244 valid responses. The results indicate that the students’ skills and psychological readiness strongly influence their perceived ease of use (PEU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of m-learning, whereas both these constructs positively influenced their behavioral intention to use m-learning. The findings of this study have theoretical as well as practical implications which are discussed at the end.