Sensitivity to initial conditions in self-organized critical systems

We discuss sensitivity to initial conditions in a model for avalanches in granular media displaying self-organized criticality. We show that damage, due to a small perturbation in initial conditions, does not spread. The damage persists in a statistically time-invariant and scale-free form. We argue that the origin of this behavior is the Abelian nature of the model, which generalizes our results to all Abelian models, including the BTW model and the Manna model. An ensemble average of the damage leads to seemingly time dependent damage spreading. Scaling arguments show that this numerical result is due to the time lag before avalanches reach the initial perturbation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

‘The Most Important Thing is the Music:’ Ralph Blizard’s Legacy Preserving Traditional Appalachian Old-Time Music

This thesis uses qualitative research methods to elaborate on Ralph Blizard’s legacy in the old-time music community. The aspects of Blizard’s legacy that were examined include his style of fiddling and the actions he took to preserve traditional Appalachian old-time music. This thesis discusses the old-time music revival in the late 20th Century and Blizard’s role in the revival. This thesis used documentary research, archival research, and personal interviews. Documentary and archival research took place at the Ralph Blizard Museum in Blountville, Tennessee, and the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University. I conducted personal interviews with Blizard’s musical colleagues and members of his family. This thesis shows that Blizard’s legacy in old-time music is defined the actions he took to help preserve the sound of traditional Appalachian old-time music just as much as it is defined by his style of fiddling

Critical Peace Pedagogy in the Social Studies: A Peace-Oriented Approach to Critical Citizen Education

This two-article dissertation begins by providing a conceptual argument for the inclusion of Critical Peace Pedagogy (CPP) in social studies education. CPP represents the convergence of the peace education tradition and Paulo Freire’s critical praxis. I begin by aligning CPP to the philosophy, goals, and methods of instruction espoused by critical citizen educators seeking to further democracy and human rights. To demonstrate the feasibility of CPP integration within the social studies, I provide a model classroom approach framed according to a nationally recognized instructional design model. I close with a brief exposition on the importance of peace within education’s emerging critical pedagogical trend. Article two transfers my conceptual argument to empirical research. In this comparative case study of three secondary social studies teachers, I explain their experience of learning CPP through a professional development workshop and implementing CPP within a conservative, “red state” public-school setting. I trace the teachers’ implementation process using the constructs of pedagogical reasoning and subject area critical consciousness. Through this combined lens of analysis, I identify teachers’ shared experience of seeing the violence within their curricular content, understanding their classroom’s potential for greater social change, and recognizing mandated curriculum as a prohibitor to complete CPP integration. I also characterize two distinct approaches to CPP instruction: (1) an instrumental approach fueled by disciplinary understanding, and (2) a conceptual approach allowing for complete CPP integration. The nature and importance of these two classroom approaches are discussed according to their contributions to critical classroom praxis and greater social change

Family Law\u27s Coldest War: The Battle for Frozen Embryos and the Need for a Statutory White Flag

Without concrete legislative guidance, courts are left to a variety of unsatisfactory methods of determining the disposition of frozen embryos in dissolutions and custody disputes. Beginning in 1992, courts have been issuing problematic rulings that are reached through the application of three approaches: (1) the balancing-interests test; (2) the contemporaneous mutual consent approach; and (3) the contractual approach. These approaches are examined in this Comment through the lens of selected cases and the largely inequitable outcomes for parties are critiqued. Courts even lament the lack of statutory guidance in deciding these disputes but are resigned to employing these largely flawed, inequitable approaches. This Comment goes on to address the statutes already in place in a handful of states—but even where there are statutes in effect, they fail to adequately address the issue and guide the courts in determining the disposition of frozen embryos. After critically examining selected statutes from states with more progressive statutes, as well as those with more conservative guidelines, this Comment proposes a model statute for states to use as a framework when enacting new legislation to address this increasingly pressing issue. As case after case suggests, legislation is sorely needed to provide a guiding light for courts as couples litigate the disposition of frozen embryos. The model statute uses courts’ favored contractual approach and the current statutes, namely those enacted in California and Florida, as a starting point. This Comment concludes that the best protocol to resolve custody disputes is for states to enact legislation providing that contractual arrangements between couples beginning the in vitro fertilization process must be honored in the face of custody disputes and further suggests that required mediation be employed when the contract cannot be upheld. This approach endorses procreational autonomy and prevents the delivery of more inequitable results to parties litigating the disposition of their embryos during dissolutions

Influence of Sediment Nutrients on Growth of Emergent Hygrophila

Hygrophila ( Hygrophila polysperma (Roxb.) T. Anderson) is a plants which forms serious aquatic weed problems. Both submerged and emergent growth forms occur. Nutritional studies with a controlled release fertilizer and sediments collected from hygrophila-infested areas were conducted with the emergent growth habit to provide insights into growth of this introduced plant. Plant dry weights for experimental 16- week culture periods with low average temperatures were associated with low amounts of hygrophila biomass as compared to culture periods with high average temperatures. Hygrophila cultured in sand rooting media with the controlled release fertilizer produced as much as 20 times more dry weight than plants cultured in sediments only. First-degree linear regression statistics showed hygrophila dry weights were highly related to ammonia nitrogen, magnesium, sodium, and pH values in the sediments. These findings show the close relationship of the emergent growth habit of hygrophila to sediment nutrients. Analyses for certain sediment characteristics may provide an indication of the potential growth that may be expected for weed infestations of this plant. Hygrophila grows year round in south Florida; however, visual observations of canals and other bodies of water indicate that lower amounts of hygrophila plants occur during the cooler months of year than during the summer season. These findings show the seasonal growth of emergent hygrophila occurs with biomass dependent on both sediment nutrients and temperature

How individuals’ social characteristics impact the likelihood to waste a vote

Corinna Kroeber, Cal Le Gall and Sarah C. Dingler analyse the similarities and differences of voters who vote for a party or candidate unlikely to win an election. Studying voting behaviour in three European democracies with different majoritarian electoral systems, namely the United Kingdom, Germany and France, they show that the archetypical ‘ballot wasters’ are the young and men

Who wastes their vote?

In their recent study, Corinna Kroeber, Cal Le Gall and Sarah C. Dingler analyse the similarities and differences of voters who do not make their vote count by voting for a party or candidate unlikely to win an election. Studying voting behaviour in three European democracies with different majoritarian electoral systems, namely the United Kingdom, Germany and France, they show that the archetypical ‘ballot wasters’ are the young and men

Recruitment procedures shape the gender composition of party lists in European Parliament elections

Different countries select their Members of the European Parliament in different manners, with Britain opting for a party list system based on regional (in the case of England) and national constituencies (in the cases of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). The European Parliament has better gender representation than most legislatures, however as Jessica Fortin-Rittberger, Berthold Rittberger, and Sarah Dingler argue, the recruitment procedures used by parties shape the gender composition of the lists that prospective MEPs appear on

Cognition-aware systems to support information intake and learning

Knowledge is created at an ever-increasing pace putting us under constant pressure to consume and acquire new information. Information gain and learning, however, require time and mental resources. While the proliferation of ubiquitous computing devices, such as smartphones, enables us to consume information anytime and anywhere, technologies are often disruptive rather than sensitive to the current user context. While people exhibit different levels of concentration and cognitive capacity throughout the day, applications rarely take these performance variations into account and often overburden their users with information or fail to stimulate. This work investigates how technology can be used to help people effectively deal with information intake and learning tasks through cognitive context-awareness. By harvesting sensor and usage data from mobile devices, we obtain people's levels of attentiveness, receptiveness, and cognitive performance. We subsequently use this cognition-awareness in applications to help users process information more effectively. Through a series of lab studies, online surveys, and field experiments we follow six research questions to investigate how to build cognition-aware systems. Awareness of user's variations in levels of attention, receptiveness, and cognitive performance allows systems to trigger appropriate content suggestions, manage user interruptions, and adapt User Interfaces in real-time to match tasks to the user's cognitive capacities. The tools, insights, and concepts described in this book allow researchers and application designers to build systems with an awareness of momentary user states and general circadian rhythms of alertness and cognitive performance

Sur la théorie des sciences d’Henri Poincaré

Dans son beau discours sur M. Henri Poincaré, Émile Picard nous a rappelé une expression de J.-B. Dumas sur le fameux physiologiste Claude Bernard, et a employé cette expression pour Poincaré lui-même : « On pourrait dire pareillement d’Henri Poincaré qu’il ne fut pas seulement un grand mathéma­ticien, maïs la mathématique elle-même. » Et comme Poincaré, d’après l’expression que nous venons de dire, a com­pris et développé la mathématique dans toutes ses profondeurs, il est clair qu’il devait..