10,123 research outputs found
Sociological Knowledge and Transformation at ‘Diversity University’, UK
This chapter is based on a case study of one UK university sociology department and shows how sociology knowledge can transform the lives of ‘non-traditional’ students. The research from which the case is drawn focused on four departments teaching sociology-related subjects in universities positioned differently in UK league tables. It explored the question of the relationship between university reputation, pedagogic quality and curriculum knowledge, challenging taken-for-granted judgements about ‘quality’ and in conceptualising ‘just’ university pedagogy by taking Basil Bernstein’s ideas about how ‘powerful’ knowledge is distributed in society to illuminate pedagogy and curriculum. The project took the view that ‘power’ lies in the acquisition of specific (inter)disciplinary knowledges which allows the formation of disciplinary identities by way of developing the means to think about and act in the world in specific ways. We chose to focus on sociology because (1) university sociology is taken up by all socio-economic classes in the UK and is increasingly taught in courses in which the discipline is applied to practice; (2) it is a discipline that historically pursues social and moral ambition which assists exploration of the contribution of pedagogic quality to individuals and society beyond economic goals; (3) the researchers teach and research sociology or sociology of education - an understanding of the subjects under discussion is essential to make judgements about quality. ‘Diversity’ was one of four case study universities. It ranks low in university league tables; is located in a large, multi-cultural English inner city; and, its students are likely to come from lower socio-economic and/or ethnic minority groups, as well as being the first in their families to attend university. To make a case for transformative teaching at Diversity, the chapter draws on longitudinal interviews with students, interviews with tutors, curriculum documents, recordings of teaching, examples of student work, and a survey. It establishes what we can learn from the case of sociology at Diversity, arguing that equality, quality and transformation for individuals and society are served by a university curriculum which is research led and challenging combined with pedagogical practices which give access to difficult-to-acquire and powerful knowledge
Geometrical Phase Transition on WO Surface
A topographical study on an ensemble of height profiles obtained from atomic
force microscopy techniques on various independently grown samples of tungsten
oxide WO is presented by using ideas from percolation theory. We find that
a continuous 'geometrical' phase transition occurs at a certain critical
level-height below which an infinite island appears. By using the
finite-size scaling analysis of three independent percolation observables i.e.,
percolation probability, percolation strength and the mean island-size, we
compute some critical exponents which characterize the transition. Our results
are compatible with those of long-range correlated percolation. This method can
be generalized to a topographical classification of rough surface models.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Applied Physics Letters (2010
On iterated translated points for contactomorphisms of R^{2n+1} and R^{2n} x S^1
A point q in a contact manifold is called a translated point for a
contactomorphism \phi, with respect to some fixed contact form, if \phi (q) and
q belong to the same Reeb orbit and the contact form is preserved at q. The
problem of existence of translated points is related to the chord conjecture
and to the problem of leafwise coisotropic intersections. In the case of a
compactly supported contactomorphism of R^{2n+1} or R^{2n} x S^1 contact
isotopic to the identity, existence of translated points follows immediately
from Chekanov's theorem on critical points of quasi-functions and Bhupal's
graph construction. In this article we prove that if \phi is positive then
there are infinitely many non-trivial geometrically distinct iterated
translated points, i.e. translated points of some iteration \phi^k. This result
can be seen as a (partial) contact analogue of the result of Viterbo on
existence of infinitely many iterated fixed points for compactly supported
Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of R^{2n}, and is obtained with generating
functions techniques in the setting of arXiv:0901.3112.Comment: 10 pages, revised version. I removed the discussion on linear growth
of iterated translated points, because it contained a mistake. To appear in
the International Journal of Mathematic
Phantom Accretion by Five Dimensional Charged Black Hole
This paper deals with the dynamical behavior of phantom field near five
dimensional charged black hole. We formulate equations of motion for
steady-state spherically symmetric flow of phantom fluids. It is found that
phantom energy accretes onto black holes for . Further, the location of
critical point of accretion are evaluated that leads to mass to charge ratio
for 5D charged black hole. This ratio implies that accretion cannot transform a
black hole into a naked singularity. We would like to mention here that this
work is an irreducible extension of 4D charged black hole.Comment: 8 pages, accepted for publication in Mod. Phys. Lett.
Diabetic retinopathy and socioeconomic deprivation in Gloucestershire
Objectives To investigate socioeconomic variations in diabetes prevalence, uptake of screening for diabetic retinopathy, and prevalence of diabetic retinopathy. Methods The County of Gloucestershire formed the setting of the study. A cross-sectional study of people with diabetes was done on a countywide retinopathy-screening database. Diabetes prevalence with odds ratios, uptake of screening, prevalence of any retinopathy and prevalence of sight-threatening retinopathy at screening were compared for different area deprivation quintiles. Logistic regression was used to adjust for confounding. Results With each increasing quintile of deprivation, diabetes prevalence increased (odds ratio 0.84), the probability of having been screened for diabetic retinopathy decreased (odds ratio 1.11), and the prevalence of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy among screened patients increased (odds ratio of 0.98), while the prevalence of non-sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy remained unchanged with each increasing quintile of deprivation. Conclusion Sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy was associated with socioeconomic deprivation, but non-sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy was not. Uptake of screening was inversely related to socioeconomic deprivation
Noise Generation in Hot Jets
A prediction method based on the generalized acoustic analogy is presented, and used to evaluate aerodynamic noise radiated from high speed hot jets. The set of Euler equations are split into their respective non-radiating and residual components. Under certain conditions, the residual equations are rearranged to form a wave equation. This equation consists of a third-order wave operator, plus a number of nonlinear terms that are identified with the equivalent sources of sound and their statistical characteristics are modeled. A specialized RANS solver provides the base flow as well as turbulence quantities and temperature fluctuations that determine the source strength. The main objective here is to evaluate the relative contribution from various source elements to the far-field spectra and to show the significance of temperature fluctuations as a source of aerodynamic noise in hot jets
Direct data-driven LPV control of nonlinear systems:An experimental result
We demonstrate that direct data-driven control of nonlinear systems can be successfully accomplished via a behavioral approach that builds on a Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) system concept. An LPV data-driven representation is used as a surrogate LPV form of the data-driven representation of the original nonlinear system. The LPV data-driven control design that builds on this representation form uses only measurement data from the nonlinear system and a priori information on a scheduling map that can lead to an LPV embedding of the nonlinear system behavior. Efficiency of the proposed approach is demonstrated experimentally on a nonlinear unbalanced disc system showing for the first time in the literature that behavioral data-driven methods are capable to stabilize arbitrary forced equilibria of a real-world nonlinear system by the use of only 7 data points
- …