An Embodied Spiritual Inquiry into the Nature of Human Boundaries: Outcomes of a Participatory Approach to Transpersonal Education and Research

Embodied spiritual inquiry (ESI) is a radical approach to integral and transpersonal education and research offered as a graduate course at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Inspired by elements of participatory research and cooperative inquiry, ESI applies interactive embodied meditations to access multiple ways of knowing (e.g., somatic, vital, emotional, mental, contemplative) and mindfully inquire into collaboratively decided questions. This article presents the learning outcomes of an inquiry into the nature of human boundaries within and between co-inquirers, providing an example of how ESI is implemented in the classroom and can be used to study transpersonal subject matter. In particular, the study found that boundaries were experienced in terms of their dynamic effects rather than as static qualities, with a relationship between dissociation and overly firm boundaries, as well as a relationship between integration/merging and more varied combinations of firm and permeable boundaries. Other notable inquiry outcomes include the identification of (a) experiential qualities of the states of dissociation, merging, and integration; (b) a recursive relationship between fear and trust in the modulation of optimal interpersonal boundaries; and (c) the phenomenon of shared emergent experience between practitioners, which suggests the existence of an intersubjective transpersonal field

An Embodied Spiritual Inquiry into the Nature of Human Boundaries: Outcomes of a Participatory Approach to Transpersonal Education and Research

Embodied spiritual inquiry (ESI) is a radical approach to integral and transpersonal education and research offered as a graduate course at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Inspired by elements of participatory research and cooperative inquiry, ESI applies interactive embodied meditations to access multiple ways of knowing (e.g., somatic, vital, emotional, mental, contemplative) and mindfully inquire into collaboratively decided questions. This article presents the learning outcomes of an inquiry into the nature of human boundaries within and between co-inquirers, providing an example of how ESI is implemented in the classroom and can be used to study transpersonal subject matter. In particular, the study found that boundaries were experienced in terms of their dynamic effects rather than as static qualities, with a relationship between dissociation and overly firm boundaries, as well as a relationship between integration/merging and more varied combinations of firm and permeable boundaries. Other notable inquiry outcomes include the identification of (a) experiential qualities of the states of dissociation, merging, and integration; (b) a recursive relationship between fear and trust in the modulation of optimal interpersonal boundaries; and (c) the phenomenon of shared emergent experience between practitioners, which suggests the existence of an intersubjective transpersonal field

Long range neutrino forces in the cosmic relic neutrino background

Neutrinos mediate long range forces among macroscopic bodies in vacuum. When the bodies are placed in the neutrino cosmic background, these forces are modified. Indeed, at distances long compared to the scale $T^{-1}$, the relic neutrinos completely screen off the 2-neutrino exchange force, whereas for small distances the interaction remains unaffected.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

On the origin of ambiguity in efficient communication

This article studies the emergence of ambiguity in communication through the concept of logical irreversibility and within the framework of Shannon's information theory. This leads us to a precise and general expression of the intuition behind Zipf's vocabulary balance in terms of a symmetry equation between the complexities of the coding and the decoding processes that imposes an unavoidable amount of logical uncertainty in natural communication. Accordingly, the emergence of irreversible computations is required if the complexities of the coding and the decoding processes are balanced in a symmetric scenario, which means that the emergence of ambiguous codes is a necessary condition for natural communication to succeed.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure

Magnetic Phases in Three-Flavor Color Superconductivity

The best natural candidates for the realization of color superconductivity are quark stars -not yet confirmed by observation- and the extremely dense cores of compact stars, many of which have very large magnetic fields. To reliably predict astrophysical signatures of color superconductivity, a better understanding of the role of the star's magnetic field in the color superconducting phase that realizes in the core is required. This paper is an initial step in that direction. The field scales at which the different magnetic phases of a color superconductor with three quark flavors can be realized are investigated. Coming from weak to strong fields, the system undergoes first a symmetry transmutation from a Color-Flavor-Locked (CFL) phase to a Magnetic-CFL (MCFL) phase, and then a phase transition from the MCFL phase to the Paramagnetic-CFL (PCFL) phase. The low-energy effective theory for the excitations of the diquark condensate in the presence of a magnetic field is derived using a covariant representation that takes into account all the Lorentz structures contributing at low energy. The field-induced masses of the charged mesons and the threshold field at which the CFL $\to$ MCFL symmetry transmutation occurs are obtained in the framework of this low-energy effective theory. The relevance of the different magnetic phases for the physics of compact stars is discussed.Comment: Version to appear in PR

Microscopic origin of the conducting channels in metallic atomic-size contacts

We present a theoretical approach which allows to determine the number and orbital character of the conducting channels in metallic atomic contacts. We show how the conducting channels arise from the atomic orbitals having a significant contribution to the bands around the Fermi level. Our theory predicts that the number of conducting channels with non negligible transmission is 3 for Al and 5 for Nb one-atom contacts, in agreement with recent experiments. These results are shown to be robust with respect to disorder. The experimental values of the channels transmissions lie within the calculated distributions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 ps-figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Higgs- and Goldstone bosons-mediated long range forces

In certain mild extensions of the Standard Model, spin-independent long range forces can arise by exchange of two very light pseudoscalar spin--0 bosons. In particular, we have in mind models in which these bosons do not have direct tree level couplings to ordinary fermions. Using the dispersion theoretical method, we find a $1/r^{3}$ behaviour of the potential for the exchange of very light pseudoscalars and a $1/r^{7}$ dependence if the pseudoscalars are true massless Goldstone bosons.Comment: 13 pages (REVTeX), 2 figure

Both cis and trans Activities of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus 3D Polymerase Are Essential for Viral RNA Replication

The Picornaviridae is a large family of positive-sense RNA viruses that contains numerous human and animal pathogens, including foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). The picornavirus replication complex comprises a co-ordinated network of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions involving multiple viral and host-cellular factors. Many of the proteins within the complex possess multiple roles in viral RNA replication, some of which can be provided in trans (i.e. via expression from a separate RNA molecule), whilst other are required in cis (i.e. expressed from the template RNA molecule). In vitro studies have suggested that multiple copies of the RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase (RdRp), 3D, are involved in the viral replication complex. However, it is not clear whether all these molecules are catalytically active or what other function(s) they provide. In this study, we aimed to distinguish between catalytically-active 3D molecules and those which build a replication complex. We report a novel non-enzymatic cis-acting function of 3D that is essential for viral genome replication. Using a FMDV replicon in complementation experiments, our data demonstrate that this cis-acting role of 3D is distinct from the catalytic activity, which is predominantly trans-acting. Immunofluorescence studies suggest that both cis- and trans acting 3D molecules localise to the same cellular compartment. However, our genetic and structural data suggest that 3D interacts in cis with RNA stem-loops that are essential for viral RNA replication. Together, this study identifies a previously undescribed aspect of picornavirus replication complex structure-function and an important methodology for probing such interactions further

Screw dislocation in zirconium: An ab initio study

Plasticity in zirconium is controlled by 1/3 screw dislocations gliding in the prism planes of the hexagonal close-packed structure. This prismatic and not basal glide is observed for a given set of transition metals like zirconium and is known to be related to the number of valence electrons in the d band. We use ab initio calculations based on the density functional theory to study the core structure of screw dislocations in zirconium. Dislocations are found to dissociate in the prism plane in two partial dislocations, each with a pure screw character. Ab initio calculations also show that the dissociation in the basal plane is unstable. We calculate then the Peierls barrier for a screw dislocation gliding in the prism plane and obtain a small barrier. The Peierls stress deduced from this barrier is lower than 21 MPa, which is in agreement with experimental data. The ability of an empirical potential relying on the embedded atom method (EAM) to model dislocations in zirconium is also tested against these ab initio calculations