The Ways of Peace: A philosophy of peace as action

We can conceive of peace in many different ways, and these differences are related to a variety of assumptions and practices we can adopt in our culture. This book is about those differences. Part I describes the ways in which we usually talk about peace. It argues that our conception is fundamentally obscure. We do not know what peace is and we do not know how to promote it. Part II develops an explanation of how peace has been obscured. It has been obscured by a network of beliefs and institutions in our culture. Part III critically evaluates some key parts of this cultural web and argues that there is an alternative cluster of assumptions and practices which we ought to adopt. It is a cluster which is intrinsically better—regardless of whatever it may imply about peace. Part IV argues that it happens to imply that we should think of peace as an activity—a practice we can cultivate at high levels of excellent performance. It draws on Gandhian satyagraha, Quaker process and practices of "principled negotiation" using the Harvard model to illustrate

The contrasting physiological and subjective effects of chewing gum on social stress

Uncertainty exists with respect to the extent to which chewing gum may attenuate stress-induced rises in cortisol secretion (Scholey et al., 2009; Smith, 2010; Johnson et al., 2011). The present study used the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST: Kirschbaum et al., 1993), a task known to elevate cortisol secretion (Kudielka et al., 2004), in order to examine the moderating physiological and subjective effects of chewing gum on social stress. Forty participants completed the TSST either with or without chewing gum. As expected, completion of the TSST elevated both cortisol and subjective stress levels, whilst impairing mood. Although gum moderated the perception of stress, cortisol concentrations were higher following the chewing of gum. The findings are consistent with Smith (2010) who argued that elevations in cortisol following the chewing of gum reflect heightened arousal. The findings suggest that chewing gum only benefits subjective measures of stress. The mechanism remains unclear; however, this may reflect increased cerebral blood flow, cognitive distraction, and/or effects secondary to task facilitation

Assessment of Functional Fitness Measures Among Community-Dwelling Older and Younger Adults

Please view abstract in the attached PDF fil

The Gemini spectral library of near-IR late type stellar templates and its application for velocity dispersion measurements

We present a spectroscopic library of late spectral type stellar templates in the near-IR range 2.15-2.42microns, at R=5300-5900 resolution, oriented to support stellar kinematics studies in external galaxies, such as the direct determination of the masses of supermassive black-holes in nearby active (or non-active) galaxies. The combination of high spectral resolution and state-of-the-art instrumentation available in 8-m class telescopes has made the analysis of circumnuclear stellar kinematics using the near-IR CO band heads one of the most used techniques for such studies, and this library aims to provide the supporting datasets required by the higher spectral resolution and larger spectral coverage currently achieved with modern near-IR spectrographs. Examples of the application for kinematical analysis are given for data obtained with two Gemini instruments, but the templates can be easily adjusted for use with other near-IR spectrographs at similar or lower resolution. The example datasets are also used to revisit the "template mismatch" effect and the dependence of the velocity dispersion values obtained from the fitting process with the characteristics of the stellar templates. The library is available in electronic form from the Gemini web pages (link above).Comment: To appear in the ApJ Supplement Series, December 2009. AASTex, 25 pages, 17 figures. The library spectra are available in standard FITS format from the Gemini Observatory webpage at http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/nearir-resources/?q=node/1016

The shrinking State? Understanding the assault on the public sector

The public sector appears under siege across the globe. While there are variations across and within nations in how this plays out, the arms of the state that provide the social safety net and protect citizens' well-being are especially at risk. The erosion of the state as an institution can be seen in cuts to social programmes and public sector jobs, underfunded infrastructure, the sale of public assets and other forms of privatization along with the more general weakening of regulatory authority and diversion of resources to the private sector. Although such trends are often interpreted as part of the fallout from the Great Recession, they have been observed across localities and regions for a very long time. In addressing the thematic question of the “shrinking state,” we seek to investigate the extent to which the social contract between government and citizens and the private sector has fractured thereby transforming regions and localities. This paper addresses to what degree, why, and where the public sector is in retreat. We examine at what scale of the state from central to local have changes been most profound and explore what the future holds in terms of resistance to, or acquiescence in, these trends

On the use of empirical bolometric corrections for stars

When making use of tabulations of empirical bolometric corrections for stars (BC_V), a commonly overlooked fact is that while the zero point is arbitrary, the bolometric magnitude of the Sun (Mbol_Sun) that is used in combination with such tables cannot be chosen arbitrarily. It must be consistent with the zero point of BC_V so that the apparent brightness of the Sun is reproduced. The latter is a measured quantity, for which we adopt the value V_Sun = -26.76 +/- 0.03. Inconsistent values of Mbol_Sun are listed in many of the most popular sources of BC_V. We quantify errors that are introduced by not paying attention to this detail. We also take the opportunity to reprint the BC_V coefficients of the often used polynomial fits by Flower (1996), which were misprinted in the original publication.Comment: 5 pages including 3 tables. To appear in The Astronomical Journa

Numerical Algebraic Geometry: A New Perspective on String and Gauge Theories

The interplay rich between algebraic geometry and string and gauge theories has recently been immensely aided by advances in computational algebra. However, these symbolic (Gr\"{o}bner) methods are severely limited by algorithmic issues such as exponential space complexity and being highly sequential. In this paper, we introduce a novel paradigm of numerical algebraic geometry which in a plethora of situations overcomes these short-comings. Its so-called 'embarrassing parallelizability' allows us to solve many problems and extract physical information which elude the symbolic methods. We describe the method and then use it to solve various problems arising from physics which could not be otherwise solved.Comment: 36 page