Transformation without Paternalism

Human development is meant to be transformational in that it aims to improve people's lives by enhancing their capabilities. But who does it target: people as they are or the people they will become? This paper argues that the human development approach relies on an understanding of personal identity as dynamic rather than as static collections of preferences, and that this distinguishes human development from conventional approaches to development. Nevertheless, this dynamic understanding of personal identity is presently poorly conceptualized and this has implications for development practice. We identify a danger of paternalism and propose institutionalizing two procedural principles as side constraints on development policies and projects: the principle of free prior informed consent and the principle of democratic development

Chiral Vortons and Cosmological Constraints on Particle Physics

We investigate the cosmological consequences of particle physics theories that admit stable loops of current-carrying string - vortons. In particular, we consider chiral theories where a single fermion zero mode is excited in the string core, such as those arising in supersymmetric theories with a D-term. The resulting vortons formed in such theories are expected to be more stable than their non-chiral cousins. General symmetry breaking schemes are considered in which strings formed at one symmetry breaking scale become current-carrying at a subsequent phase transition. The vorton abundance is estimated and constraints placed on the underlying particle physics theories from cosmological observations. Our constraints on the chiral theory are considerably more stringent than the previous estimates for more general theories.Comment: minor corrections made. This version will appear in PR

Carbon-Monoxide Emission From Nebulosity Associated With Herbig Be And Ae Type Stars

NSF GP-36548Astronom

A recurrence matrix method for the analysis of longitudinal and torsional vibrations in non-uniform multibranch beams with variable boundary conditions

An approximate method for calculating the longitudinal and torsional natural frequencies and associated modal data of a beamlike, variable cross section multibranch structure is presented. The procedure described is the numerical integration of the first order differential equations that characterize the beam element in longitudinal motion and that satisfy the appropriate boundary conditions

Atomic screening of nuclear transitions

In the analysis of time-reversal and Mössbauer absorption experiments, it is important to consider atomic processes which interfere with the direct nuclear transition. Interaction of the photon with the atomic electrons causes the radiation to acquire a phase shift, specified by the interference parameter ξ(L_π). We present theoretical expressions for ξ and compare our calculated values with experiment. Satisfactory agreement is obtained. In particular, an apparent violation of time-reversal invariance in the 129-keV transition of ^(191)Ir is fully explained by these effects

Estimating marginal cohort working life expectancies from sequential cross-sectional survey data

This article applies recently developed health expectancy methodologies to estimate the average duration of future work life in different states of work ability. Data on working capacity obtained from sequential cross-sectional samples of the cohort population were available from Finnish surveys conducted among active municipal employees. We used these data to estimate cohort marginal probabilities and expected occupancy times in the work ability states. One finding is that the proportion of workers with excellent or good work ability decreased monotonically with advancing age for both genders, but men were prone to have worse work ability and a shorter work career than women. Transition from poor to good or excellent work ability state was estimated to increase working life expectancy of a 45-year-old person by four years for both genders. This study indicates that the work ability of aging Finnish workers deteriorates prematurely, leading to serious socio-economic consequences. Thus it is important to examine the development of work ability already at an early age when it is still possible to intervene in the process

Prolongation of Friction Dominated Evolution for Superconducting Cosmic Strings

This investigation is concerned with cosmological scenarios based on particle physics theories that give rise to superconducting cosmic strings (whose subsequent evolution may produce stable loop configurations known as vortons). Cases in which electromagnetic coupling of the string current is absent or unimportant have been dealt with in previous work. The purpose of the present work is to provide quantitative estimates for cases in which electromagnetic interaction with the surrounding plasma significantly affects the string dynamics. In particular it will be shown that the current can become sufficiently strong for the initial period of friction dominated string motion to be substantially prolonged, which would entail a reinforcement of the short length scale end of the spectrum of the string distribution, with potentially observable cosmological implications if the friction dominated scenario lasts until the time of plasma recombination.Comment: 10 pages Late

Cosmic Vortons and Particle Physics Constraints

We investigate the cosmological consequences of particle physics theories that admit stable loops of superconducting cosmic string - {\it vortons}. General symmetry breaking schemes are considered, in which strings are formed at one energy scale and subsequently become superconducting in a secondary phase transition at what may be a considerably lower energy scale. We estimate the abundances of the ensuing vortons, and thereby derive constraints on the relevant particle physics models from cosmological observations. These constraints significantly restrict the category of admissible Grand Unified theories, but are quite compatible with recently proposed effects whereby superconducting strings may have been formed close to the electroweak phase transition.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figures, RevTe