Ambassadors of the game: do famous athletes have special obligations to act virtuously?

Do famous athletes have special obligations to act virtuously? A number of philosophers have investigated this question by examining whether famous athletes are subject to special role model obligations (Wellman 2003; Feezel 2005; Spurgin 2012). In this paper we will take a different approach and give a positive response to this question by arguing for the position that sport and gaming celebrities are ‘ambassadors of the game’: moral agents whose vocations as rule-followers have unique implications for their non-lusory lives. According to this idea, the actions of a game’s players and other stakeholders—especially the actions of its stars—directly affect the value of the game itself, a fact which generates additional moral reasons to behave in a virtuous manner. We will begin by explaining the three main positions one may take with respect to the question: moral exceptionalism, moral generalism, and moral exemplarism. We will argue that no convincing case for moral exemplarism has thus far been made, which gives us reason to look for new ways to defend this position. We then provide our own ‘ambassadors of the game’ account and argue that it gives us good reason to think that sport and game celebrities are subject to special obligations to act virtuously

Improved analytic longitudinal response analysis for axisymmetric launch vehicles. Volume I - Linear analytic model

Improved analytic longitudinal response analysis for axisymmetric launch vehicles - linear mode

Dynamical Models of Extreme Rolling of Vessels in Head Waves

Rolling of a ship is a swinging motion around its length axis. In particular vessels transporting containers may show large amplitude roll when sailing in seas with large head waves. The dynamics of the ship is such that rolling interacts with heave being the motion of the mass point of the ship in vertical direction. Due to the shape of the hull of the vessel its heave is influenced considerably by the phase of the wave as it passes the ship. The interaction of heave and roll can be modeled by a mass-spring-pendulum system. The effect of waves is then included in the system by a periodic forcing term. In first instance the damping of the spring can be taken infinitely large making the system a pendulum with an in vertical direction periodically moving suspension. For a small angular deflection the roll motion is then described by the Mathieu equation containing a periodic forcing. If the period of the solution of the equation without forcing is about twice the period of the forcing then the oscillation gets unstable and the amplitude starts to grow. After describing this model we turn to situation that the ship is not anymore statically fixed at the fluctuating water level. It may move up and down showing a motion modeled by a damped spring. One step further we also allow for pitch, a swinging motion around a horizontal axis perpendicular to the ship. It is recommended to investigate the way waves may directly drive this mode and to determine the amount of energy that flows along this path towards the roll mode. Since at sea waves are a superposition of waves with different wavelengths, we also pay attention to the properties of such a type of forcing containing stochastic elements. It is recommended that as a measure for the occurrence of large deflections of the roll angle one should take the expected time for which a given large deflection may occur instead of the mean amplitude of the deflection

Solidification in soft-core fluids: disordered solids from fast solidification fronts

Using dynamical density functional theory we calculate the speed of solidification fronts advancing into a quenched two-dimensional model fluid of soft-core particles. We find that solidification fronts can advance via two different mechanisms, depending on the depth of the quench. For shallow quenches, the front propagation is via a nonlinear mechanism. For deep quenches, front propagation is governed by a linear mechanism and in this regime we are able to determine the front speed via a marginal stability analysis. We find that the density modulations generated behind the advancing front have a characteristic scale that differs from the wavelength of the density modulation in thermodynamic equilibrium, i.e., the spacing between the crystal planes in an equilibrium crystal. This leads to the subsequent development of disorder in the solids that are formed. For the one-component fluid, the particles are able to rearrange to form a well-ordered crystal, with few defects. However, solidification fronts in a binary mixture exhibiting crystalline phases with square and hexagonal ordering generate solids that are unable to rearrange after the passage of the solidification front and a significant amount of disorder remains in the system.Comment: 18 pages, 14 fig

Involutions and the Gelfand character

The Gelfand representation of $\mathcal{S}_n$ is the multiplicity-free direct sum of the irreducible representations of $\mathcal{S}_n$. In this paper, we use a result of Adin, Postnikov, and Roichman to find a recursive generating function for the Gelfand character. In order to find this generating function, we investigate descents of so-called $\lambda$-unimodal involutions

THE SKIN AND MUCOUS SECRETION OF THE EUROPEAN EEL, Anguilla anguilla. L .

The epidermis of the eel A. Anguilla L. secretes a mucous layer mainly from its mucous cells although there may also be a contribution from surface epidermal cells . Under certain conditions, the epidermal cells may transform to a secretory cell type that resembles, but is structurally distinct from a mucous cell . This observation has not previously been reported in fish epidermis. Specialised club cells, characteristic of the Anguillidae contain filamentous material that may be secreted beneath the epidermal surface. This previously unobserved phenomenon together with an increase in cell numbers around the lateral region may suggest an additional protective mechanism which may be of use, for example, during 'burrowing'. The quantitative distribution of mucous cells over the body was also determined and the cellular contents of the main cell types characterised histochemically. Lymphocytes and previously unseen granular neutrophil-like cells may function in more specific protective mechanisms against pathogenic organisms . The mucus has been examined biochemically and separated by chromatography and electrophoresis to reveal several components. Rheological study has established shear thinning properties of the mucus and functional groups essential to maintain the integrity of the mucous structure. The dynamics of mucous secretion have been observed autoradiographically and a model for the mechanism of secretion proposed . Attempts have been made to measure the rate of mucous secretion under a number of experimental conditions which are discussed in relation to the viscous nature of mucus and the proposed model for secretion. The epidermis and its mucous secretion thus provide an effective lubricative barrier to the environment extremely important for locomotion and protection from dessication, osmotic stress and disease organisms