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The physics instruction at UC Davis for life science majors takes place in a long-standing reformed large-enrollment physics course in which the discussion/lab instructors (primarily graduate student teaching assistants) implement the interactive-engagement (IE) elements of the course. Because so many different instructors participate in disseminating the IE course elements, we find it essential to the instructors professional development to observe and document the student-instructor interactions within the classroom. Out of this effort, we have developed a computerized real-time instructor observation tool (RIOT) to take data of student-instructor interactions. We use the RIOT to observe 29 different instructors for five hours each over the course of one quarter, for a total of about 150 hours of class time, finding that the range of instructor behaviors is more extreme than previously assumed. In this paper, we introduce the RIOT and describe how the variation present across 29 different instructors can provide students in the same course with significantly different course experiences., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures; pre-print, submitted to APS Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research

This paper describes our large reformed introductory physics course at UC Davis, which bioscience students have been taking since 1996. The central feature of this course is a focus on sense-making by the students during the five hours per week discussion/labs in which the students take part in activities emphasizing peer-peer discussions, argumentation, and presentations of ideas. The course differs in many fundamental ways from traditionally taught introductory physics courses. After discussing the unique features of CLASP and its implementation at UC Davis, various student outcome measures are presented showing increased performance by students who took the CLASP course compared to students who took a traditionally taught introductory physics course. Measures we use include upper-division GPAs, MCAT scores, FCI gains, and MPEX-II scores., Comment: Also submitted to American Journal of Physics

The successive coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from 2010 July 30 - August 1 present us the first opportunity to study CME-CME interactions with unprecedented heliospheric imaging and in situ observations from multiple vantage points. We describe two cases of CME interactions: merging of two CMEs launched close in time and overtaking of a preceding CME by a shock wave. The first two CMEs on August 1 interact close to the Sun and form a merged front, which then overtakes the July 30 CME near 1 AU, as revealed by wide-angle imaging observations. Connections between imaging observations and in situ signatures at 1 AU suggest that the merged front is a shock wave, followed by two ejecta observed at Wind which seem to have already merged. In situ measurements show that the CME from July 30 is being overtaken by the shock at 1 AU and is significantly compressed, accelerated and heated. The interaction between the preceding ejecta and shock also results in variations in the shock strength and structure on a global scale, as shown by widely separated in situ measurements from Wind and STEREO B. These results indicate important implications of CME-CME interactions for shock propagation, particle acceleration and space weather forecasting., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

Let M be a real 2m-torus equipped with a translation-invariant metric h and a translation-invariant symplectic form w; the latter we interpret as a magnetic field on M. The Hamiltonian flow of half the norm-squared function induced by h on T^*M (the "kinetic energy") with respect to the twisted symplectic form w_{T^*M}+ \pi^*w describes the trajectories of a particle moving on M under the influence of the magnetic field w. If [w] is an integral cohomology class, then we can study the geometric quantization of the symplectic manifold (T^*M,w_{T^*M}+\pi^*w) with the kinetic energy Hamiltonian. We say that the quantizations of two such tori (M_1,h_1,w_1) and (M_2,h_2,w_2) are quantum equivalent if their quantum spectra, i.e., the spectra of the associated quantum Hamiltonian operators, coincide; these quantum Hamiltonian operators are proportional to the h_j-induced bundle Laplacians on powers of the Hermitian line bundle on M with Chern class [w]. In this paper, we construct continuous families {(M,h_t)}_t of mutually nonisospectral flat tori (M,h_t), each endowed with a translation-invariant symplectic structure w, such that the associated classical Hamiltonian systems are pairwise equivalent. If w represents an integer cohomology class, then the (M,h_t,w) also have the same quantum spectra. We show moreover that for any translation-invariant metric h and any translation-invariant symplectic structure w on M that represents an integer cohomology class, the associated quantum spectrum determines whether (M,h,w) is Kaehler, and that all translation-invariant Kaehler structures (h,w) of given volume on M have the same quantum spectra. Finally, we construct pairs of magnetic fields (M,h,w_1), (M,h,w_2) having the same quantum spectra but nonsymplectomorphic classical phase spaces. In some of these examples the pairs consist of Kaehler manifolds., Comment: 14 pages

We construct pairs of compact K\"ahler-Einstein manifolds $(M_i,g_i,\omega_i)$ ($i=1,2)$ of complex dimension $n$ with the following properties: The canonical line bundle $L_i=\bigwedge^n T^*M_i$ has Chern class $[\omega_i/2\pi]$, and for each integer $k$ the tensor powers $L_1^{\otimes k}$ and $L_2^{\otimes k}$ are isospectral for the bundle Laplacian associated with the canonical connection, while $M_1$ and $M_2$ -- and hence $T^*M_1$ and $T^*M_2$ -- are not homeomorphic. In the context of geometric quantization, we interpret these examples as magnetic fields which are quantum equivalent but not classically equivalent. Moreover, we construct many examples of line bundles $L$, pairs of potentials $Q_1$, $Q_2$ on the base manifold, and pairs of connections $\nabla_1$, $\nabla_2$ on $L$ such that for each integer $k$ the associated Schr\"odinger operators on $L^{\otimes k}$ are isospectral., Comment: 14 pages

We study the relationship between the geometry and the Laplace spectrum of a Riemannian orbifold O via its heat kernel; as in the manifold case, the time-zero asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel furnishes geometric information about O. In the case of a good Riemannian orbifold (i.e., an orbifold arising as the orbit space of a manifold under the action of a discrete group of isometries), H. Donnelly proved the existence of the heat kernel and constructed the asymptotic expansion for the heat trace. We extend Donnelly's work to the case of general compact orbifolds. Moreover, in both the good case and the general case, we express the heat invariants in a form that clarifies the asymptotic contribution of each part of the singular set of the orbifold. We calculate several terms in the asymptotic expansion explicitly in the case of two-dimensional orbifolds; we use these terms to prove that the spectrum distinguishes elements within various classes of two-dimensional orbifolds., Comment: to appear in Michigan Math. J

The commission studied the establishment and effectiveness of district-wide school disciplinary policies and practices and developed a plan to address the growing concern of violence in the public schools. The following 11-point plan was presented, including key findings and recommendations: (1) adopting statewide student conduct and responsibility standards; (2) adopting local district-wide codes of conduct; (3) formulating mandatory crisis response plans; (4) enacting antihazing and antiharassment statutes to protect educational personnel; (5) providing teachers with greater input in the removal of disruptive and violent students and disciplinary and placement decisions; (6) providing timely reporting of student records between schools; (7) establishing a task force to study alternative programs and interventions; (8) providing certain juvenile crime/conviction information to school officials; (9) providing information to law enforcement; (10) providing immunity protections for school personnel; and (11) supporting violence prevention and intervention programs. Appendices list resolves 1997, commission members, summaries of meetings, civil rights cases in Maine, and information on other states' school safety programs. (DFR)