A Love That Lasts: Jane Austen’s Argument for a Marriage Based on Love in Pride and Prejudice

During the period of Regency England, a woman’s life was planned for her before she was born, and her place in society was defined by her marital status. Before she was married, she was her father’s daughter with a slim possibility of inheriting property. After she was married, legally she did not exist; she was subsumed into her husband with absolutely no legal, political, or financial rights. She was someone’s wife; that is, if she was fortunate enough to marry because spinsters had very few opportunities to earn enough money to live on alone. Therefore, it was imperative that women marry. It often did not matter what a man may look like or how he acted; however, it was essential that he be a man of equal or more wealth. Rather than marrying for love, women sought husbands as means for financial security. The pressures of society led many women to pursue empty sexual passions in a desperate attempt to secure husbands. In her novel Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen expresses her idea that marriage should not be based on the pressures of society but rather on sincere love and acceptance of the other person. Through the contrast of other loveless relationships, Austen convinces her readers that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have found a truly successful marriage with security, money, and passion; they are in a marriage based on true love and respect for one another. Through the novel, Austen portrays the idea that women of Regency society should pursue a relationship of mutual understanding and love rather than one that only provides financial security or empty sexual passion

Acts of Resistance in an Age of Compliance: Teacher Educators, Professional Knowledge-Making and Self-Study

Vol. 8. No. 1 May 2018 Professor Amanda Berry is Deputy Dean Research and Professor of STEM Education in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia. Amanda's research focuses on teacher knowledge development and how that knowledge is shaped and refined throughout teachers' professional life span. Amanda has a strong international profile in the field of science teacher education and is considered a leading scholar in research on science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This work in PCK is highly cited and includes journal articles, Handbook chapters and books. She has been involved in many research projects focusing on innovations designed to address the quality of teacher professional learning and enhance science teaching and learning in schools and universities. Amanda is currently editor of the journal, Studying Teacher Education: A journal of self-study of teacher education practices, and Associate Editor of Research in Science Education

Acts of Resistance in an Age of Compliance: Teacher Educators, Professional Knowledge-Making and Self-Study

Significant structural reforms are reshaping the landscape of teacher education in many countries. Such reforms typically increase the standardisation of teaching practice so that teacher education becomes a mechanism for achieving ends determined elsewhere, with teacher educators (TEs) as the delivery service for these predetermined ends. In this article, I explore the implications of this situation for the professional knowledge and status of TEs, and argue that, both individually and collectively, TEs need to recognise and take action to assert their professional position as empowered, active and legitimate knowledge-makers about teaching practice. I draw on Clandinin & Connelly’s (1995) concept of professional knowledge landscapes and their ‘secret’ and ‘sacred’ stories as a tool to examine these ideas, and the methodology of self-study as one means of reshaping the professional knowledge landscape of teacher education

Linear-optical processing cannot increase photon efficiency

We answer the question whether linear-optical processing of the states produced by one or multiple imperfect single-photon sources can improve the single-photon fidelity. This processing can include arbitrary interferometers, coherent states, feedforward, and conditioning on results of detections. We show that without introducing multiphoton components, the single-photon fraction in any of the single-mode states resulting from such processing cannot be made to exceed the efficiency of the best available photon source. If multiphoton components are allowed, the single-photon fidelity cannot be increased beyond 1/2. We propose a natural general definition of the quantum-optical state efficiency, and show that it cannot increase under linear-optical processing.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Vibrational transfer functions for complex structures

Evaluation of effects of vibrational multiple frequency forcing functions is discussed. Computer program for developing vibrational transfer functions is described. Possible applications of computer program are enumerated

Topological Aspects of the Non-adiabatic Berry Phase

The topology of the non-adiabatic parameter space bundle is discussed for evolution of exact cyclic state vectors in Berry's original example of split angular momentum eigenstates. It turns out that the change in topology occurs at a critical frequency. The first Chern number that classifies these bundles is proportional to angular momentum. The non-adiabatic principal bundle over the parameter space is not well-defined at the critical frequency.Comment: 14 pages, Dep. of Physics, Uni. of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, to appear in J. Physics

Evaluation of Work Place Group and Internet Based Physical Activity Interventions on Psychological Variables Associated with Exercise Behavior Change

The purpose of this research was to compare group-based and internet-based physical activity interventions in terms of desirability, participants characteristics, exercise self-efficacy, and barrier self-efficacy. Pretest questionnaires were completed prior to voluntary enrollment into either of the ten-week physical activity interventions. Both interventions were based on Social Cognitive Theory and the Transtheoretical Model. Interventions were followed with posttest questionnaires. Results demonstrated that the internet intervention attracted more participants, but only the grou-based participants showed significant increases in exercise and barrier self-efficacy. At pretest, participants who selected the internet intervention were significantly lower in life and job satisfaction than those who selected the group intervention. Results suggested that traditional group-based exercise interventions are helpful for improving cognitions associated with exercise behavior change (e.g., exercise self-efficacy) and that the internet intervention may help employees who fall into an “unhappy employee” typology

Child maltreatment and autonomic nervous system reactivity: identifying dysregulated stress reactivity patterns by using the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat.

ObjectiveDisruptions in stress response system development have been posited as mechanisms linking child maltreatment (CM) to psychopathology. Existing theories predict elevated sympathetic nervous system reactivity after CM, but evidence for this is inconsistent. We present a novel framework for conceptualizing stress reactivity after CM that uses the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. We predicted that in the context of a social-evaluative stressor, maltreated adolescents would exhibit a threat pattern of reactivity, involving sympathetic nervous system activation paired with elevated vascular resistance and blunted cardiac output (CO) reactivity.MethodsA sample of 168 adolescents (mean age =14.9 years) participated. Recruitment targeted maltreated adolescents; 38.2% were maltreated. Electrocardiogram, impedance cardiography, and blood pressure were acquired at rest and during an evaluated social stressor (Trier Social Stress Test). Pre-ejection period (PEP), CO, and total peripheral resistance reactivity were computed during task preparation, speech delivery, and verbal mental arithmetic. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms were assessed.ResultsMaltreatment was unrelated to PEP reactivity during preparation or speech, but maltreated adolescents had reduced PEP reactivity during math. Maltreatment exposure (F(1,145) = 3.8-9.4, p = .053-<.001) and severity (β = -0.10-0.12, p = .030-.007) were associated with significantly reduced CO reactivity during all components of the stress task and marginally associated with elevated total peripheral resistance reactivity (F(1,145) = 3.8-9.4; p = .053-<.001 [β = 0.07-0.11] and p = .11-.009, respectively). Threat reactivity was positively associated with externalizing symptoms.ConclusionsCM is associated with a dysregulated pattern of physiological reactivity consistent with theoretical conceptualizations of threat but not previously examined in relation to maltreatment, suggesting a more nuanced pattern of stress reactivity than predicted by current theoretical models

On the measurement problem for a two-level quantum system

A geometric approach to quantum mechanics with unitary evolution and non-unitary collapse processes is developed. In this approach the Schrodinger evolution of a quantum system is a geodesic motion on the space of states of the system furnished with an appropriate Riemannian metric. The measuring device is modeled by a perturbation of the metric. The process of measurement is identified with a geodesic motion of state of the system in the perturbed metric. Under the assumption of random fluctuations of the perturbed metric, the Born rule for probabilities of collapse is derived. The approach is applied to a two-level quantum system to obtain a simple geometric interpretation of quantum commutators, the uncertainty principle and Planck's constant. In light of this, a lucid analysis of the double-slit experiment with collapse and an experiment on a pair of entangled particles is presented.Comment: for related papers, see http://www.uwc.edu/dept/math/faculty/kryukov