String Unification and Leptophobic Z′Z' in Flipped SU(5)

We summarize recent developments in the prediction for $\alpha_s(M_Z)$, self-consistent string unification and the dynamical determination of mass scales, and leptophobic $Z'$ gauge bosons in the context of stringy flipped SU(5). [To appear in Proceedings of Fourth International Conference on Supersymmetry (SUSY96), University of Maryland (May 1996).]Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX (uses espcrc2.sty), 5 figures (included

Light dynamics in glass-vanadium dioxide nanocomposite waveguides with thermal nonlinearity

We address the propagation of laser beams in Si02-VO2 nanocomposite waveguides with thermo-optical nonlinearity. We show that the large modifications of the absorption coefficient as well as notable changes of refractive index of VO2 nanoparticles embedded into the SiO2 host media that accompany the semiconductor-to-metal phase transition may lead to optical limiting in the near-infrared wave range.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Optics Letter

The incidence correspondence and its associated maps in homotopy

The incidence correspondence in the grassmannian which determines the tautological bundle defines a map between cycle spaces on grassmannians. These cycle spaces decompose canonically into a product of Eilenberg-MacLane spaces. These decompositions and the associated maps are calculated up to homotopy.</p

Circling the Cross: Bridging Native America, Education, and Digital Media

Part of the Volume on Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital MediaTo paraphrase a Native elder, any road will get you somewhere. The question for Native America is, where will the information highway take them? As Native Americans continue to face challenges from the legacy of colonialism, new media provide both an opportunity and crises in education. Standardized education policy such as No Child Left Behind and funding cuts in social services inadvertently impact Net access and Indian education, yet alternative programs and approaches exist. It is necessary that programs conceptualize new media learning strategies within a historical context by being sensitive to the political and cultural connotations of literacy and technology in Native American communities. By encouraging the use of new media as a tool for grassroots community media and locally relevant storytelling, this chapter asks educators to consider an alternative epistemology that incorporates non-Western approaches to ecology and knowledge