Sporting embodiment: sports studies and the (continuing) promise of phenomenology

Whilst in recent years sports studies have addressed the calls ‘to bring the body back in’ to theorisations of sport and physical activity, the ‘promise of phenomenology’ remains largely under-realised with regard to sporting embodiment. Relatively few accounts are grounded in the ‘flesh’ of the lived sporting body, and phenomenology offers a powerful framework for such analysis. A wide-ranging, multi-stranded, and interpretatively contested perspective, phenomenology in general has been taken up and utilised in very different ways within different disciplinary fields. The purpose of this article is to consider some selected phenomenological threads, key qualities of the phenomenological method, and the potential for existentialist phenomenology in particular to contribute fresh perspectives to the sociological study of embodiment in sport and exercise. It offers one way to convey the ‘essences’, corporeal immediacy and textured sensuosity of the lived sporting body. The use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is also critically addressed. Key words: phenomenology; existentialist phenomenology; interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA); sporting embodiment; the lived-body; Merleau-Pont

Soil organisms in organic and conventional cropping systems.

Apesar do crescente interesse pela agricultura orgânica, são poucas as informações de pesquisa disponíveis sobre o assunto. Assim, num Argissolo Vermelho-Amarelo distrófico foram comparados os efeitos de sistemas de cultivo orgânico e convencional, para as culturas do tomate (Lycopersicum esculentum) e do milho (Zea mays), sobre a comunidade de organismos do solo e suas atividades. As populações de fungos,bactérias e actinomicetos, determinadas pela contagem de colônias em meio de cultura, foram semelhantes para os dois sistemas de produção. A atividade microbiana, avaliada pela evolução de CO2, manteve-se superior no sistema orgânico, sendo que em determinadas avaliações foi o dobro da evolução verificada no sistema convencional. O número de espécimes de minhoca foi praticamente dez vezes maior no sistema orgânico. Não foi observada diferença na taxa de decomposição de matéria orgânica entre os dois sistemas. De modo geral, o número de indivíduos de microartrópodos foi superior no sistema orgânico do que no sistema convencional, refletindo no maior índice de diversidade de Shannon. As maiores populações de insetos foram as da ordem Collembola, enquanto para os ácaros a maior população foi a da superfamília Oribatuloidea. Indivíduos dos grupos Aranae, Chilopoda, Dyplopoda, Pauropoda, Protura e Symphyla foram ocasionalmente coletados e de forma similar entre os sistemas

Calculation of excited polaron states in the Holstein model

An exact diagonalization technique is used to investigate the low-lying excited polaron states in the Holstein model for the infinite one-dimensional lattice. For moderate values of the adiabatic ratio, a new and comprehensive picture, involving three excited (coherent) polaron bands below the phonon threshold, is obtained. The coherent contribution of the excited states to both the single-electron spectral density and the optical conductivity is evaluated and, due to the invariance of the Hamiltonian under the space inversion, the two are shown to contain complementary information about the single-electron system at zero temperature. The chosen method reveals the connection between the excited bands and the renormalized local phonon excitations of the adiabatic theory, as well as the regime of parameters for which the electron self-energy has notable non-local contributions. Finally, it is shown that the hybridization of two polaron states allows a simple description of the ground and first excited state in the crossover regime.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PR

The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. It combines a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level together with a fluorescence detector to measure the development of air showers in the atmosphere above the array. The fluorescence detector comprises 24 large telescopes specialized for measuring the nitrogen fluorescence caused by charged particles of cosmic ray air showers. In this paper we describe the components of the fluorescence detector including its optical system, the design of the camera, the electronics, and the systems for relative and absolute calibration. We also discuss the operation and the monitoring of the detector. Finally, we evaluate the detector performance and precision of shower reconstructions.Comment: 53 pages. Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section

Update on the correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with nearby extragalactic matter

Data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory through 31 August 2007 showed evidence for anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz'min energy threshold, \nobreak{$6\times 10^{19}$eV}. The anisotropy was measured by the fraction of arrival directions that are less than $3.1^\circ$ from the position of an active galactic nucleus within 75 Mpc (using the V\'eron-Cetty and V\'eron $12^{\rm th}$ catalog). An updated measurement of this fraction is reported here using the arrival directions of cosmic rays recorded above the same energy threshold through 31 December 2009. The number of arrival directions has increased from 27 to 69, allowing a more precise measurement. The correlating fraction is $(38^{+7}_{-6})$, compared with $21$ expected for isotropic cosmic rays. This is down from the early estimate of $(69^{+11}_{-13})$. The enlarged set of arrival directions is examined also in relation to other populations of nearby extragalactic objects: galaxies in the 2 Microns All Sky Survey and active galactic nuclei detected in hard X-rays by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. A celestial region around the position of the radiogalaxy Cen A has the largest excess of arrival directions relative to isotropic expectations. The 2-point autocorrelation function is shown for the enlarged set of arrival directions and compared to the isotropic expectation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics on 31 August 201