JETDE Preface

I am proud to introduce this issue of the Journal of Educational Technology and Development Exchange. This compendium of scholarly writing illustrates the breadth, depth, and diversity of work in the area of teaching and learning. The articles in this issue provide a glimpse into the ongoing research and scholarly dialogue in educational technology.........

Shifts in Ritual Response to Loss due to Death: An Assessment of Funeral Service Mourning Trends over Time

Bereavement, while universal, is experienced and expressed uniquely; it is both ultimate and particular. As the predominant social expression of grief, funerals are purported to be waning and/or transitioning to emergent, less conventional ceremonial forms. In this research, the possible salutary utility of funerals is outlined, and trends relative to the cost, nature (type), and prevalence of funeral services are examined relative to an extant data set from two funeral homes of shared ownership in northeast Tennessee. This data analysis of specific funeral trends in south central Appalachia is juxtaposed against the broader backdrop of current theoretical, clinical, and socio-cultural understandings of bereavement, grief, and mourning

Four Voices of Pound in Cantos I-XVII

Between 1922 and 1924, Ezra Pound completed the first sixteen Cantos. He had published three Cantos in 1917, but suspended work on them shortly thereafter. It was not until 1922, after he had moved to Paris that he resumed work on the Cantos, piecing together what now stand as the first sixteen by the summer of 1924. This places the creation of Cantos I-XVI at the same time as the writing of Ulysses and The Wasteland. Cantos XVII-XXVII were published in 1929. In July of 1922 Pound wrote of the first Cantos in a letter: The first 11 cantos are preparation of the palette. I have to get down all the colours or elements I want for the poem. Some perhaps too enigmatically and abbreviatedly. I hope, heaven help me, to bring them into some sort of design and architecture later. Because these first cantos represent such a freshly prepared palette, they provide an excellent microcosm in which to examine the elements of Pound\u27s art. Although Canto XVII was written later than the first sixteen, sometime between 1922 and 1928, it adheres so closely to them thematically and stylistically, in many ways tying elements of the first sixteen together, that studying it with I-XVI is helpful in gaining a glimpse of Pound\u27s nascent design and architecture

Four Voices of Pound in Cantos I-XVII

Between 1922 and 1924, Ezra Pound completed the first sixteen Cantos. He had published three Cantos in 1917, but suspended work on them shortly thereafter. It was not until 1922, after he had moved to Paris that he resumed work on the Cantos, piecing together what now stand as the first sixteen by the summer of 1924. This places the creation of Cantos I-XVI at the same time as the writing of Ulysses and The Wasteland. Cantos XVII-XXVII were published in 1929. In July of 1922 Pound wrote of the first Cantos in a letter: The first 11 cantos are preparation of the palette. I have to get down all the colours or elements I want for the poem. Some perhaps too enigmatically and abbreviatedly. I hope, heaven help me, to bring them into some sort of design and architecture later. Because these first cantos represent such a freshly prepared palette, they provide an excellent microcosm in which to examine the elements of Pound\u27s art. Although Canto XVII was written later than the first sixteen, sometime between 1922 and 1928, it adheres so closely to them thematically and stylistically, in many ways tying elements of the first sixteen together, that studying it with I-XVI is helpful in gaining a glimpse of Pound\u27s nascent design and architecture

Fault-tolerant Quantum Communication with Minimal Physical Requirements

We describe a novel protocol for a quantum repeater which enables long distance quantum communication through realistic, lossy photonic channels. Contrary to previous proposals, our protocol incorporates active purification of arbitrary errors at each step of the protocol using only two qubits at each repeater station. Because of these minimal physical requirements, the present protocol can be realized in simple physical systems such as solid-state single photon emitters. As an example, we show how nitrogen vacancy color centers in diamond can be used to implement the protocol, using the nuclear and electronic spin to form the two qubits.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. V2: Minor modifications. V3: Major changes in the presentation and new titl

Effect of helicity and rotation on the free decay of turbulent flows

The self-similar decay of energy in a turbulent flow is studied in direct numerical simulations with and without rotation. Two initial conditions are considered: one non-helical (mirror-symmetric), and one with maximal helicity. The results show that, while in the absence of rotation the energy in the helical and non-helical cases decays with the same rate, in rotating flows the helicity content has a major impact on the decay rate. These differences are associated with differences in the energy and helicity cascades when rotation is present. Properties of the structures that arise in the flow at late times in each time are also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Thermal Effects on the Magnetic Field Dependence of Spin Transfer Induced Magnetization Reversal

We have developed a self-aligned, high-yield process to fabricate CPP (current perpendicular to the plane) magnetic sensors of sub 100 nm dimensions. A pinned synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) is used as the reference layer which minimizes dipole coupling to the free layer and field induced rotation of the reference layer. We find that the critical currents for spin transfer induced magnetization reversal of the free layer vary dramatically with relatively small changes the in-plane magnetic field, in contrast to theoretical predictions based on stability analysis of the Gilbert equations of magnetization dynamics including Slonczewski-type spin-torque terms. The discrepancy is believed due to thermal fluctuations over the time scale of the measurements. Once thermal fluctuations are taken into account, we find good quantitative agreement between our experimental results and numerical simulations.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Appl. Phys. Lett., Comparison of some of these results with a model described by N. Smith in cond-mat/040648

Asset-pooling in uncertain times : implications of small-group farming for agricultural restructuring in the Kyrgyz Republic

Substantial theoretical and policy debate in the early 1990s led to an excessive focus on de-collectivisation and individualisation of land rights through privatisation across the former communist bloc. The objective of this paper is to examine “individualised” production systems more closely in order to understand better how certain specific organisational approaches to production differ with respect to a set of indicators of technical efficiency. In this paper we provide quantitative analysis of these new types of farming units and provide a rationale for a deeper exploration into the nature of these groups. Overall we find that the total factor productivity of small groups formed on familial and social ties is higher than that of individual farms, given the uncertain rural environment in Kyrgyzstan and the resource constraints facing landholders at this point in time. The explanation for this hinges primarily on understanding the assetpooling, risk-sharing and labour specialisation functions of groups. In-depth qualitative fieldwork performed in conjunction with this study confirms these explanations (see Sabates-Wheeler 2004). As transition agriculture continues to adapt to land reform choices that were made ten years ago, a major policy question facing the Kyrgyz government must be, what kind of agrarian structure should be facilitated in order to promote agricultural growth? Despite the push for de-collectivisation there remains a place for encouraging group farming, on grounds of both poverty alleviation and agricultural growth. Keywords: Kyrgyzstan; agricultural restructuring; asset-pooling