2,978 research outputs found

    Towards a Pedagogy of Human Connection : Understanding Teachers’ Experiences of Connection During a Pandemic

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    During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools shuttered quickly and re-opened slowly. These decisions impacted the well-being of teachers and students. Upon re-opening, schools in New Jersey adopted a range of instructional approaches—including virtual and hybrid models—that prioritized safety and diminished human connections. This came at a time when rates of isolation and loneliness were increasing and the US was already experiencing a crisis of connection. To understand teachers’ experiences with human connection during the winter and second spring of the COVID-19 pandemic, this dissertation study recruited nine high school teachers from one school in New Jersey who met a total of nine times from January, 2021 through June, 2021, to discuss their experiences of connection. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis and a theoretical frame of human connection, this study found that teachers’ experiences were best described as dis/connections. Teachers’ pursuits of connection were undertaken to support learning and develop relationships. However, these efforts were not always reciprocated by students, administrators, or parents during the pandemic context, leading to experiences of disconnection. Multiple obstacles yielded a “wall” of disconnection, however, teachers adopted practices and perspectives to overcome this wall. Successful experiences of connection were marked by reciprocity and mutuality, supported by a capacity for vulnerability. Additionally, the group itself became a site for professional connection during a time of isolation. Teachers’ experiences of dis/connection during the pandemic reflected the political realities of teachers’ lives and the ways that mutual vulnerability and authenticity are necessary in schools and classrooms if human connection is expected to thrive. Implications from this study include the emergence of a framework for a pedagogy of human connection that aims to humanize teaching and learning in a context of cultural and social dehumanization

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    Homogeneous colourings of graphs

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    A proper vertex kk-colouring of a graph GG is called ll-homogeneous if the number of colours in the neigbourhood of each vertex of GG equals ll. We explore basic properties (the existence and the number of used colours) of homogeneous colourings of graphs in general as well as of some specific graph families, in particular planar graphs

    Map enumeration from a dynamical perspective

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    This contribution summarizes recent work of the authors that combines methods from dynamical systems theory (discrete Painlev\'e equations) and asymptotic analysis of orthogonal polynomial recurrences, to address long-standing questions in map enumeration. Given a genus gg, we present a framework that provides the generating function for the number of maps that can be realized on a surface of that genus. In the case of 4-valent maps, our methodology leads to explicit expressions for map counts. For general even or mixed valence, the number of vertices of the map specifies the relevant order of the derivatives of the generating function that needs to be considered. Beyond summarizing our own results, we provide context for the program highlighted in this article through a brief review of the literature describing advances in map enumeration. In addition, we discuss open problems and challenges related to this fascinating area of research that stands at the intersection of statistical physics, random matrices, orthogonal polynomials, and discrete dynamical systems theory

    The Texture of Everyday Life: Carceral Realism and Abolitionist Speculation

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    Exploring the ways in which prisons shape the subjectivity of free-world thinkers, and the ways that subjectivity is expressed in literary texts, this dissertation develops the concept of carceral realism: a cognitive and literary mode that represents prisons and police as the only possible response to social disorder. As this dissertation illustrates, this form of consciousness is experienced as racial paranoia, and it is expressed literary texts, which reflect and help to reify it. Through this process of cultural reification, carceral realism increasingly insists on itself as the only possible mode of thinking. As I argue, however, carceral realism actually stands in a dialectical relationship to abolitionist speculation, or, the active imagining of a world without prisons and police and/or the conditions necessary to actualize such a world. In much the same way that carceral realism embeds itself in realist literary forms, abolitionist speculation plays a constitutive role in the utopian literary tradition. In order to elaborate these concepts, this dissertation begins with a meta-consideration of how cultural productions by incarcerated people are typically framed. Building upon the work of scholars and incarcerated authors’ own interventions in questions of consciousness, authorship, textual production, and study, this chapter contrasts that typical frame with a method of abolitionist reading. Chapter two applies this methodology to Edward Bunker’s 1977 novel The Animal Factory and Claudia Rankine’s 2010 poem Citizen in order to develop the concept of carceral realism and demonstrate how it has developed from the 1970s to the present. In order to lay out the historical foundations of the modern prison, chapter three looks back to the late 18th century and situates the emergence of the penitentiary within debates regarding race, citizenship, and state power. Returning to the 1970s, chapter four investigates the role universities have played in the formation of carceral realism and the complex relationship Chicanos and Asian Americans have to prisons and police by analogizing the institutionalization of prison literary study to the formation of ethnic studies. Chapter five draws this project to a conclusion by developing the concept of abolitionist speculation, or the active imagining of a world without prisons or the police and/or the conditions necessary to realize such a world, which I identify as both a constitutive generic feature of utopian literature and something that exceeds literature altogether. In doing so, this dissertation establishes an ongoing historical relationship between social reproduction of prisons and literary forms that cuts across time, geography, race, gender, and genre

    Algorithms for Geometric Facility Location: Centers in a Polygon and Dispersion on a Line

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    We study three geometric facility location problems in this thesis. First, we consider the dispersion problem in one dimension. We are given an ordered list of (possibly overlapping) intervals on a line. We wish to choose exactly one point from each interval such that their left to right ordering on the line matches the input order. The aim is to choose the points so that the distance between the closest pair of points is maximized, i.e., they must be socially distanced while respecting the order. We give a new linear-time algorithm for this problem that produces a lexicographically optimal solution. We also consider some generalizations of this problem. For the next two problems, the domain of interest is a simple polygon with n vertices. The second problem concerns the visibility center. The convention is to think of a polygon as the top view of a building (or art gallery) where the polygon boundary represents opaque walls. Two points in the domain are visible to each other if the line segment joining them does not intersect the polygon exterior. The distance to visibility from a source point to a target point is the minimum geodesic distance from the source to a point in the polygon visible to the target. The question is: Where should a single guard be located within the polygon to minimize the maximum distance to visibility? For m point sites in the polygon, we give an O((m + n) log (m + n)) time algorithm to determine their visibility center. Finally, we address the problem of locating the geodesic edge center of a simple polygon—a point in the polygon that minimizes the maximum geodesic distance to any edge. For a triangle, this point coincides with its incenter. The geodesic edge center is a generalization of the well-studied geodesic center (a point that minimizes the maximum distance to any vertex). Center problems are closely related to farthest Voronoi diagrams, which are well- studied for point sites in the plane, and less well-studied for line segment sites in the plane. When the domain is a polygon rather than the whole plane, only the case of point sites has been addressed—surprisingly, more general sites (with line segments being the simplest example) have been largely ignored. En route to our solution, we revisit, correct, and generalize (sometimes in a non-trivial manner) existing algorithms and structures tailored to work specifically for point sites. We give an optimal linear-time algorithm for finding the geodesic edge center of a simple polygon

    Computing a Dirichlet Domain for a Hyperbolic Surface

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    This paper exhibits and analyzes an algorithm that takes a given closed orientable hyperbolic surface and outputs an explicit Dirichlet domain. The input is a fundamental polygon with side pairings. While grounded in topological considerations, the algorithm makes key use of the geometry of the surface. We introduce data structures that reflect this interplay between geometry and topology and show that the algorithm runs in polynomial time, in terms of the initial perimeter and the genus of the surface

    Lectures on Generalized Symmetries

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    These are a set of lecture notes on generalized global symmetries in quantum field theory. The focus is on invertible symmetries with a few comments regarding non-invertible symmetries. The main topics covered are the basics of higher-form symmetries and their properties including 't Hooft anomalies, gauging and spontaneous symmetry breaking. We also introduce the useful notion of symmetry topological field theories (SymTFTs). Furthermore, an introduction to higher-group symmetries describing mixings of higher-form symmetries is provided. Some advanced topics covered include the encoding of higher-form symmetries in holography and geometric engineering constructions in string theory. Throughout the text, all concepts are consistently illustrated using gauge theories as examples.Comment: 138 pages, added reference

    Boussinesq modeling of the influence of wave energy converters on nearshore circulation

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    In Chapter 4 it was found that particle transport is much more sensitive to waves originating in the infra-gravity (IG) band. These are waves which typically have much smaller amplitudes than the typical waves seen on the ocean, and their long period and wavelength makes them hard to spot while looking at out at sea. Nevertheless it was found that the movement of particles have a significant component in IG frequency offshore. As the waves break in the surf zone the IG band grows in importance before the movement associated with them are dominant in the surf zone. This explains multiple effects that has been found to be dominated by IG frequencies such as the location of the river plume, net movement of inertial particles, and sand flux. As it was found that the phase-resolving nearshore wave model Boussinesq Ocean and surf zone model (BOSZ) can generate these kind of waves, it also makes sense that the model can be used to somewhat accurately predict the movement of actual particle paths. In Chapter 5 this was put to the test by comparing the simulated paths in BOSZ with actual orange paths outside Sylt. Oranges was tracked through pictures taken with a stereo camera and combined with GPS data to recreate their position in a coordinate system. Combining this data about their position with data regarding the bathymetry, tide levels, and wave compositions it was possible to numerically recreate the wave conditions of the day. In the resulting simulated movements we find that the numerical paths matches the actual paths to a satisfactory degree. Further it was found that the drifters moved slowly in one direction while having much faster oscillating movements while travelling there. This of course follows from the discussion that the slowly varying IG waves dominate the movements. It was also found that these IG waves is critical to accurately simulate particles in the surf zone, as the phases of the waves determined the direction of movement of the particles. Only by averaging paths by different phases could we get the right paths, a results which is necessary to include in all further work in tracking near shore particles. Along the coast multiple large scale fluid patterns can be found. There exists regions of flow which primarly move towards the beach or out of the beach, the latter of which is known as rip currents, as well as alongshore flow and lastly large scale circular patterns called vortexes. In Chapter 6 and 7 it was found that vortexes in the surf zone are dependent upon the tide level, the mean direction the waves were coming from, and if they all came in at the same angle or not. The radii, strength and the number of these circular movements for different values of these parameters were compared, and it was found through statistical testing that some of the parameters only influenced the radii of the vortexes, while others influenced the strength or number of vortexes. Oscillating wave surge converter (OWSC) devices are a relatively new type of wave energy converter of recent interest as these can capture a large percentage of the energy of the waves (capture factor). In Chapter 7 a method of analytically calculating the capture factor for a wave was retold. A way of numerically calculate this factor was developed, and how to include this in the BOSZ model was explained. The inclusion of a farm of OWSCs in the bathymetry had the effect of reducing all the radii and circulatory strength in the surf zone, while keeping most of the relationships from the case with an open beach. A better understanding of the vortex structures can shed light into the intensity of mixing. This goes beyond this project but we might be able to recalculate the vertical exchange of water by knowing the size and intensity of eddies. The fact that we found in Chapter 6 that vortexes at the beach match the fundamental Rankine vortex yields a better feeling of what to expect from computations. It might be possible to use the computed results in combination with analytical solutions to create better estimates for mixing ratios in the future. This can among other help to understand the influence OWSC farms have on the local ecology and morphology.Masteroppgave i anvendt og beregningsorientert matematikkMAB399MAMN-MA

    Applications of matter reference frames in quantum gravity

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