2,233 research outputs found
Are virtues national, supranational, or universal?
Many studies investigated cultural differences in values, most notably by Hofstede and Schwarz. Relatively few have focused on virtues, a related and important concept in contemporary social science. The present paper examines the similarities and differences between nations, or blocks of - culturally related - nations on the perceived importance of virtues. Adults (N = 2.809 students) from 14 countries were asked to freely mention which virtues they found important to practice in daily life, and next to rate a list of 15 virtues, which reflect the most frequently mentioned categories in The Netherlands, as found in a previous study. The 14 nations included the United States, Mexico, nine European and three Asian nations. For the free-listed virtues, we compared the top-ten lists of most frequently mentioned virtues across the nations. We used a correspondence analysis on the frequency table to assess the relationships between the virtues and nations. For the 15 virtues ratings, a MANOVA, and follow-up ANOVA’s were used to examine effects of nation, age, gender and religion. We found strong evidence for relationships between nations and blocks of culturally related nations and the importance attached to various virtues. There appear to be some country specific virtues, such as generosity in France, but also some relatively universal virtues, most notably honesty, respect, and kindness
The secondary eclipses of WASP-19b as seen by the ASTEP 400 telescope from Antarctica
The ASTEP (Antarctica Search for Transiting ExoPlanets) program was
originally aimed at probing the quality of the Dome C, Antarctica for the
discovery and characterization of exoplanets by photometry. In the first year
of operation of the 40 cm ASTEP 400 telescope (austral winter 2010), we
targeted the known transiting planet WASP-19b in order to try to detect its
secondary transits in the visible. This is made possible by the excellent
sub-millimagnitude precision of the binned data. The WASP-19 system was
observed during 24 nights in May 2010. The photometric variability level due to
starspots is about 1.8% (peak-to-peak), in line with the SuperWASP data from
2007 (1.4%) and larger than in 2008 (0.07%). We find a rotation period of
WASP-19 of 10.7 +/- 0.5 days, in agreement with the SuperWASP determination of
10.5 +/- 0.2 days. Theoretical models show that this can only be explained if
tidal dissipation in the star is weak, i.e. the tidal dissipation factor Q'star
> 3.10^7. Separately, we find evidence for a secondary eclipse of depth 390 +/-
190 ppm with a 2.0 sigma significance, a phase consistent with a circular orbit
and a 3% false positive probability. Given the wavelength range of the
observations (420 to 950 nm), the secondary transit depth translates into a day
side brightness temperature of 2690(-220/+150) K, in line with measurements in
the z' and K bands. The day side emission observed in the visible could be due
either to thermal emission of an extremely hot day side with very little
redistribution of heat to the night side, or to direct reflection of stellar
light with a maximum geometrical albedo Ag=0.27 +/- 0.13. We also report a
low-frequency oscillation well in phase at the planet orbital period, but with
a lower-limit amplitude that could not be attributed to the planet phase alone,
and possibly contaminated with residual lightcurve trends.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 13 pages, 13
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Adiabatic description of nonspherical quantum dot models
Within the effective mass approximation an adiabatic description of
spheroidal and dumbbell quantum dot models in the regime of strong dimensional
quantization is presented using the expansion of the wave function in
appropriate sets of single-parameter basis functions. The comparison is given
and the peculiarities are considered for spectral and optical characteristics
of the models with axially symmetric confining potentials depending on their
geometric size making use of the total sets of exact and adiabatic quantum
numbers in appropriate analytic approximations
Personal identity (de)formation among lifestyle travellers: A double-edged sword?
This article explores the personal identity work of lifestyle travellers – individuals for whom extended leisure travel is a preferred lifestyle that they return to repeatedly. Qualitative findings from in-depth semi-structured interviews with lifestyle travellers in northern India and southern Thailand are interpreted in light of theories on identity formation in late modernity that position identity as problematic. It is suggested that extended leisure travel can provide exposure to varied cultural praxes that may contribute to a sense of social saturation. Whilst a minority of the respondents embraced a saturation of personal identity in the subjective formation of a cosmopolitan cultural identity, several of the respondents were paradoxically left with more identity questions than answers as the result of their travels
Interplay between magnetism and superconductivity and appearance of a second superconducting transition in alpha-FeSe at high pressure
We synthesized tetragonal alpha-FeSe by melting a powder mixture of iron and
selenium at high pressure. Subsequent annealing at normal pressure results in
removing traces of hexagonal beta- FeSe, formation of a rather sharp transition
to superconducting state at Tc ~ 7 K, and the appearance of a magnetic
transition near Tm = 120 K. Resistivity and ac-susceptibility were measured on
the annealed sample at hydrostatic pressure up to 4.5 GPa. A magnetic
transition visible in ac-susceptibility shifts down under pressure and the
resistive anomaly typical for a spin density wave (SDW) antiferromagnetic
transition develops near the susceptibility anomaly. Tc determined by the
appearance of a diamagnetic response in susceptibility, increases linearly
under pressure at a rate dTc/dP = 3.5 K/GPa. Below 1.5 GPa, the resistive
superconducting transition is sharp; the width of transition does not change
with pressure; and, Tc determined by a peak in drho/dT increases at a rate ~
3.5 K/GPa. At higher pressure, a giant broadening of the resistive transition
develops. This effect cannot be explained by possible pressure gradients in the
sample and is inherent to alpha-FeSe. The dependences drho(T)/dT show a
signature for a second peak above 3 GPa which is indicative of the appearance
of another superconducting state in alpha-FeSe at high pressure. We argue that
this second superconducting phase coexists with SDW antiferromagnetism in a
partial volume fraction and originates from pairing of charge carriers from
other sheets of the Fermi surface
K2-137 b: an Earth-sized planet in a 4.3-hour orbit around an M-dwarf
We report the discovery from K2 of a transiting terrestrial planet in an
ultra-short-period orbit around an M3-dwarf. K2-137 b completes an orbit in
only 4.3 hours, the second-shortest orbital period of any known planet, just 4
minutes longer than that of KOI 1843.03, which also orbits an M-dwarf. Using a
combination of archival images, AO imaging, RV measurements, and light curve
modelling, we show that no plausible eclipsing binary scenario can explain the
K2 light curve, and thus confirm the planetary nature of the system. The
planet, whose radius we determine to be 0.89 +/- 0.09 Earth radii, and which
must have a iron mass fraction greater than 0.45, orbits a star of mass 0.463
+/- 0.052 Msol and radius 0.442 +/- 0.044 Rsol.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Issues in Research on the Young Chronically III Child
A major goal of research on chronic illness in children is to determine how the illness interacts with developmental processes. The child must be studied within the context of the family, the school, and the health care system. Problems in research include the use of appropriate control groups and matching on control variables. The generic, or cross-categorical, approach has led to the identification of factors affecting children regardless of particular illness. Adjustment to school depends on coordination of the family and health professionals with personnel within the school.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68724/2/10.1177_027112148600500406.pd
Four functional roles for case studies in emerging adulthood research
Case studies have four functional roles which, if more widely embraced, can help to advance theory and methodology in the study of emerging adults. These functions are: case-based theory development, individual-level prediction testing, theory exemplification, and idiographic psychobiography. We describe these functions and provide examples of how each one can add depth, richness and rigour to the burgeoning theory and research on emerging adulthood. We also discuss specifiability (the capacity of a theory to make predictions about, explain and interpret individuals) as a criterion of validity, to be considered as equivalent in status to the external validity criterion of generalizability. Finally we consider the protocols for case study sampling, including intensity sampling, deviant case sampling and significant case sampling
Economics of education research: a review and future prospects
In this paper we offer an appraisal of the economics of education research area, charting its history as a field and discussing the ways in which economists have contributed both to education research and to education policy-making. In particular, we highlight the theoretical and methodological contributions that economists have made to the field of education during the last 50 years. Despite the success of the economics of education as a field of inquiry, we argue that some of the contributions made by economists could be limited if the economics of education is seen as quite distinct from the other disciplines working in the field of education. In these areas of common interest, economists need to work side by side with the other major disciplines in the field of education if their contribution to the field is to be maximised, particularly in terms of applying improved methodology. We conclude that the study of education acquisition and its economic and social impact in the economics of education research area is very likely to remain a fertile research ground. Acknowledgement
On identity: Contemporary music research in the Asia-Pacific region. Introduction
Anthropology, as the study of human societies, has always been inclusive of music in some form or another, whether simply referencing a culture’s music through evocative book titles or delving in detail into musical forms and performances themselves. Music is acknowledged as a gateway to understanding a people’s experience*in particular song, which gives voice to human expression not always possible in everyday language. From another angle, music research has increasingly engaged with anthropology and this has occurred most notably in the development of the discipline of ethnomusicology, which grew from comparative musicology, and the publication of one of its key texts, Alan Merriam’s The Anthropology of Music(1964). This issue of The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology(TAPJA) contributes with a special focus on contemporary music research in the Asia Pacific region
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