On the exploitability of thermo-charged capacitors

Recently [Physics Letters A, 374, (2010) 1801] the concept of vacuum capacitor spontaneously charged harnessing the heat from a single thermal reservoir at room temperature has been introduced, along with a mathematical description of its functioning and a discussion on the main paradoxical feature that seems to violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In the present paper we investigate the theoretical and practical possibility of exploiting a such thermo-charged capacitor as voltage/current generator: we show that if very weak provisos on the physical characteristics of the capacitor are fulfilled, then a non-zero current should flow across the device, allowing the generation of potentially usable voltage, current and electric power out of a single thermal source at room temperature. Preliminary results show that the power output is tiny but non-zero.Comment: 23 Pages, 10 Figures. Physica A 390/6 (2011) 482 + Addendum (2013

Writing and the zeitgeist

Have contemporary writers anything to say about their times and, if so, have they the nerve to say it? This article argues that there is much failure of vision and failure of nerve on the part of today's writers. Because they lack the clarity and courage to come to terms with the times, they succumb to its deceptions and seductions. Its thesis is is that the power and value of writing is in the scope and depth of its engagement with the zeitgeist; in how perceptively a writer captures the spirit of the age, expresses the temper of the times; in how much of what is there in the air, throbbing in the collective psyche, pulsing in the ever shifting social order, a writer gathers up and expresses in accurate and resonant images, in provocative and paradigmatic stories. This is pursued in reflection on attitudes expressed at two international writers conferences and in polemic against the prevailing views expressed

GMRES for oscillatory matrix-valued differential equations

We investigate the use of Krylov subspace methods to solve linear, oscillatory ODEs. When we apply a Krylov subspace method to a properly formulated equation, we retain the asymptotic accuracy of the asymptotic expansion whilst converging to the exact solution. We will demonstrate the effectiveness of this method by computing Error and Mathieu functions

Clinical and Radiological Parameters Predict Functional Improvement following Surgical Intervention

Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), defined as "compression of the spinal cord in the cervical area of the spine", which ranges widely in severity and mechanism. The current research involving CSM involves studying surgical outcomes and determining the most reliable outcome measurements including radiological variables. The methods involved evaluating 50 patients on both clinical and radiologic variables operated on by the same surgeon from 2013-2018 retrospectively. A post operative ΔmJOA score was used to evaluate functional improvement. This study showed that the parameters of BMI, intermedullary lesion length (IML), and cervical kyphosis can be measured to assess improvement following surgical decompression. The predictive ability of these measures can be applied to better counsel patients and improve stratification in interventional studies.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

European socialism: a blind alley or a long and winding road?

This pamphlet attempts to look at socialism at its current conjuncture in terms of a longer trajectory of history. In doing so, it also defends the possibility of philosophy of history

Class, race, gender and the production of knowledge: considerations on the decolonisation of knowledge

How do class, race and gender impact on the production of knowledge? Is it enough to include those who have been excluded from advanced knowledge? Or has knowledge itself been tainted by the exclusions of class, race, gender and colonial conquest? How to proceed with such realisations? How do we decolonise our minds and our universities? Should we repudiate existing knowledge and start again at zero? Or should we return to the indigenous knowledge of our ancestors? Or should we engage in a radical and critical transformation? How has Rhodes Must Fall dramatised these dilemmas? What does Marxism have to offer in working through these issues

Universities, social movements and market forces

Universities have changed drastically over the past few decades. To understand and articulate what has happened, I make a stab at answering, however sketchily, the following questions: What forces have shaped universities over recent decades? What as been the impact of social movements such as socialism, feminism, africanism on the process of the production of knowledge? Why has it been deemed necessary, not only to demand inclusion of the excluded in the domain of higher knowledge, but to challenge the existing canon and to struggle for radically new approaches to curricula? What has been achieved by history from below, gender studies, african studies, postcolonial studies? What has happened to all the passionate debates between contending paradigms? Are market forces marginalising all else? Is it desirable and/or possible to resist? How is the project of academic transformation in South Africa unfolding within this global field of forces

America: symptoms of decline

This article was an attempt to get the pulse of the zeitgeist visiting the USA in 1991

Philosophers, scientists and the unity of science

This paper examines historical images of the unity of science and makes a case for a contemporary conceptualisation of this project for our own times. It argues that, to overcome the fragmentation of knowledge, it is necessary to have an adequate and appropriate philosophy. This paper outlines the parameters of such a philosophy

A Note on Solid-State Maxwell Demon

Starting from 2002, at least two kinds of laboratory-testable, solid-state Maxwell demons have been proposed that utilize the electric field energy of an open-gap n-p junction and that seem to challenge the validity of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In the present paper we present some arguments against the alleged functioning of such devices.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Foundations of Physics, forthcoming. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1101.505