Contextualised problem-based approach for teaching undergraduate database module

In this paper, a new approach has been used in teaching the second year undergraduate database module. The approach is a combination of contextualisation, problem-based approach, group work and continuous formative assessment. The contextualisation ensures the visibility of teaching/learning activities so that students are aware of the values of activities and how they can fit into a big picture. Problem-based approach gives the students tasks/problems to solve before the relevant lecture takes place, hence can better develop effective reasoning processes, independently learning skills and improve motivation and engagement. Group work is regularly used due to the diversity of student backgrounds and level of prior knowledge of certain topics. By having group work, students can learn from each other and easily clarify confusions among themselves before approaching the lecturer. This gives the lecture more time focusing on common issues. Formative assessment has also been used to support teaching/learning activities and to reinforce their understanding. The work in this paper has been evaluated via an end-of-year online module survey. The results show good effectiveness of the new approach, although there are still spaces for improvement

First Order Feynman-Kac Formula

We study the parabolic integral kernel associated with the weighted Laplacian and the Feynman-Kac kernels. For manifold with a pole we deduce formulas and estimates for them and for their derivatives, given in terms of a Gaussian term and the semi-classical bridge. Assumptions are on the Riemannian data.Comment: 31 pages, to appear in `Stochastic Processes and their Applications

Wind-driven Accretion in Protoplanetary Disks. I: Suppression of the Magnetorotational Instability and Launching of the Magnetocentrifugal Wind

We perform local, vertically stratified shearing-box MHD simulations of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) at a fiducial radius of 1 AU that take into account the effects of both Ohmic resistivity and ambipolar diffusion (AD). The magnetic diffusion coefficients are evaluated self-consistently from a look-up table based on equilibrium chemistry. We first show that the inclusion of AD dramatically changes the conventional picture of layered accretion. Without net vertical magnetic field, the system evolves into a toroidal field dominated configuration with extremely weak turbulence in the far-UV ionization layer that is far too inefficient to drive rapid accretion. In the presence of a weak net vertical field (plasma beta~10^5 at midplane), we find that the MRI is completely suppressed, resulting in a fully laminar flow throughout the vertical extent of the disk. A strong magnetocentrifugal wind is launched that efficiently carries away disk angular momentum and easily accounts for the observed accretion rate in PPDs. Moreover, under a physical disk wind geometry, all the accretion flow proceeds through a strong current layer with thickness of ~0.3H that is offset from disk midplane with radial velocity of up to 0.4 times the sound speed. Both Ohmic resistivity and AD are essential for the suppression of the MRI and wind launching. The efficiency of wind transport increases with increasing net vertical magnetic flux and the penetration depth of the FUV ionization. Our laminar wind solution has important implications on planet formation and global evolution of PPDs.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, accepted to Ap

Magnetic Flux Concentration and Zonal Flows in Magnetorotational Instability Turbulence

Accretion disks are likely threaded by external vertical magnetic flux, which enhances the level of turbulence via the magnetorotational instability (MRI). Using shearing-box simulations, we find that such external magnetic flux also strongly enhances the amplitude of banded radial density variations known as zonal flows. Moreover, we report that vertical magnetic flux is strongly concentrated toward low-density regions of the zonal flow. Mean vertical magnetic field can be more than doubled in low-density regions, and reduced to nearly zero in high density regions in some cases. In ideal MHD, the scale on which magnetic flux concentrates can reach a few disk scale heights. In the non-ideal MHD regime with strong ambipolar diffusion, magnetic flux is concentrated into thin axisymmetric shells at some enhanced level, whose size is typically less than half a scale height. We show that magnetic flux concentration is closely related to the fact that the magnetic diffusivity of the MRI turbulence is anisotropic. In addition to a conventional Ohmic-like turbulent resistivity, we find that there is a correlation between the vertical velocity and horizontal magnetic field fluctuations that produces a mean electric field that acts to anti-diffuse the vertical magnetic flux. The anisotropic turbulent diffusivity has analogies to the Hall effect, and may have important implications for magnetic flux transport in accretion disks. The physical origin of magnetic flux concentration may be related to the development of channel flows followed by magnetic reconnection, which acts to decrease the mass-to-flux ratio in localized regions. The association of enhanced zonal flows with magnetic flux concentration may lead to global pressure bumps in protoplanetary disks that helps trap dust particles and facilitates planet formation.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Modeling the transmission of Wolbachia in mosquitoes for controlling mosquito-borne diseases

We develop and analyze an ordinary differential equation model to assess the potential effectiveness of infecting mosquitoes with the Wolbachia bacteria to control the ongoing mosquito-borne epidemics, such as dengue fever, chikungunya, and Zika. Wolbachia is a natural parasitic microbe that stops the proliferation of the harmful viruses inside the mosquito and reduces disease transmission. It is difficult to sustain an infection of the maternal transmitted Wolbachia in a wild mosquito population because of the reduced fitness of the Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes and cytoplasmic incompatibility limiting maternal transmission. The infection will only persist if the fraction of the infected mosquitoes exceeds a minimum threshold. Our two-sex mosquito model captures the complex transmission-cycle by accounting for heterosexual transmission, multiple pregnant states for female mosquitoes, and the aquatic-life stage. We identify important dimensionless numbers and analyze the critical threshold condition for obtaining a sustained Wolbachia infection in the natural population. This threshold effect is characterized by a backward bifurcation with three coexisting equilibria of the system of differential equations: a stable disease-free equilibrium, an unstable intermediate-infection endemic equilibrium and a stable high-infection endemic equilibrium. We perform sensitivity analysis on epidemiological and environmental parameters to determine their relative importance to Wolbachia transmission and prevalence. We also compare the effectiveness of different integrated mitigation strategies and observe that the most efficient approach to establish the Wolbachia infection is to first reduce the natural mosquitoes and then release both infected males and pregnant females. The initial reduction of natural population could be accomplished by either residual spraying or ovitraps.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure; submitted to SIA

An optimistic CoGeNT analysis

Inspired by a recently proposed model of millicharged atomic dark matter (MADM), we analyze several classes of light dark matter models with respect to CoGeNT modulated and unmodulated data, and constraints from CDMS, XENON10 and XENON100. After removing the surface contaminated events from the original CoGeNT data set, we find an acceptable fit to all these data (but with the modulating part of the signal making a statistically small contribution), using somewhat relaxed assumptions about the response of the null experiments at low recoil energies, and postulating an unknown modulating background in the CoGeNT data at recoil energies above 1.5 keVee. We compare the fits of MADM---an example of inelastic magnetic dark matter---to those of standard elastically and inelastically scattering light WIMPs (eDM and iDM). The iDM model gives the best fit, with MADM close behind. The dark matter interpretation of the DAMA annual modulation cannot be made compatible with these results however. We find that the inclusion of a tidal debris component in the dark matter phase space distribution improves the fits or helps to relieve tension with XENON constraints.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures; v2: added discussion of dipole-dipole scattering and details of matrix elements; also implications of XENON100 2012 limits. Qualitative conclusions unchanged. Published versio

Dynamics of Solids in the Midplane of Protoplanetary Disks: Implications for Planetesimal Formation

(Abridged) We present local 2D and 3D hybrid numerical simulations of particles and gas in the midplane of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) using the Athena code. The particles are coupled to gas aerodynamically, with particle-to-gas feedback included. Magnetorotational turbulence is ignored as an approximation for the dead zone of PPDs, and we ignore particle self-gravity to study the precursor of planetesimal formation. Our simulations include a wide size distribution of particles, ranging from strongly coupled particles with dimensionless stopping time tau_s=Omega t_stop=1e-4 to marginally coupled ones with tau_s=1 (where Omega is the orbital frequency, t_stop is the particle friction time), and a wide range of solid abundances. Our main results are: 1. Particles with tau_s>=0.01 actively participate in the streaming instability, generate turbulence and maintain the height of the particle layer before Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is triggered. 2. Strong particle clumping as a consequence of the streaming instability occurs when a substantial fraction of the solids are large (tau_s>=0.01) and when height-integrated solid to gas mass ratio Z is super-solar. 3. The radial drift velocity is reduced relative to the conventional Nakagawa-Sekiya-Hayashi (NSH) model, especially at high Z. We derive a generalized NSH equilibrium solution for multiple particle species which fits our results very well. 4. Collision velocity between particles with tau_s>=0.01 is dominated by differential radial drift, and is strongly reduced at larger Z. 5. There exist two positive feedback loops with respect to the enrichment of local disk solid abundance and grain growth. All these effects promote planetesimal formation.Comment: 25 pages (emulate apj), accepted to Ap