Eclipsing Binaries as Astrophysical Laboratories: Internal Structure, Convective Core Overshooting and Evolution of the B-star Components of V380 Cygni

New photometric solutions have been carried out on the important eccentric eclipsing system V380 Cygni (B1.5II-III + B2V) from UBV differential photoelectric photometry obtained by us. The photometric elements obtained from the analysis of the light curves have been combined with the spectroscopic solution recently published by Popper & Guinan and have led to the physical properties of the system components. The effective temperature of the stars has been determined by fitting IUE UV spectrophotometry to Kurucz model atmospheres and compared with other determinations from broad-band and intermediate-band standard photometry. The values of mass, absolute radius, and effective temperature, for the primary and secondary stars are: 11.1+/-0.5 Mo, 14.7+/-0.2 Ro, 21350+/-400 K, and 6.95+/-0.25 Mo, 3.74+/-0.07 Ro, 20500+/-500 K, respectively. In addition, a re-determination of the system's apsidal motion rate has been done from the analysis of 12 eclipse timings obtained from 1923 to 1995. Using stellar structure and evolutionary models with modern input physics, tests on the extent of convection in the core of the more massive star of the system have been carried out. Both the analysis of the log g-log Teff diagram and the apsidal motion study indicate a star with a larger convective core, and thus more centrally condensed, than currently assumed. This has been quantified in form of an overshooting parameter with a value of 0.6+/-0.1. Finally, the tidal evolution of the system (synchronization and circularization times) has also been studied.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in Ap

The twilight of the Liberal Social Contract? On the Reception of Rawlsian Political Liberalism

This chapter discusses the Rawlsian project of public reason, or public justification-based 'political' liberalism, and its reception. After a brief philosophical rather than philological reconstruction of the project, the chapter revolves around a distinction between idealist and realist responses to it. Focusing on political liberalism’s critical reception illuminates an overarching question: was Rawls’s revival of a contractualist approach to liberal legitimacy a fruitful move for liberalism and/or the social contract tradition? The last section contains a largely negative answer to that question. Nonetheless the chapter's conclusion shows that the research programme of political liberalism provided and continues to provide illuminating insights into the limitations of liberal contractualism, especially under conditions of persistent and radical diversity. The programme is, however, less receptive to challenges to do with the relative decline of the power of modern states

Constitutivism

A brief explanation and overview of constitutivism

From green technology development to green innovation: inducing regulatory adoption of pathogen detection technology for sustainable forestry

Technological entrepreneurship has been widely acknowledged as a key driver of modern industrial economies, and more recently, a panacea for environmental and social problems. However, our current understanding of how green-technology ventures emerge and diffuse more sustainable innovations remains limited. We advance theory on green entrepreneurship by drawing on institutional work to refine and extend our understanding of how entrepreneurs may influence government policies and practices in their attempts to diffuse green technology. We develop a theoretical framework that combines institutional work with a search tool, the technological, commercial, organizational, and societal (TCOS) framework of innovative uncertainties, which identifies key opportunities, hurdles, and potential unintended consequences at early stages of technology development. We present a detailed case study of a potential university-based green-tech venture developing pathogen detection technology for forestry protection. Foreign pathogens spread by international trade can have major detrimental impacts on forests and the industries that rely on them. Our analysis found that green technology demonstrating technological feasibility is necessary but not sufficient; green-tech ventures must also engage in institutional work, in this case, articulating the technology’s benefits to regulators to establish legitimacy and avoid misuse that can hinder its adoption. We thus add to previous studies by emphasizing that institutional work could be a main activity for a green-tech venture, a core entrepreneurial strategy rather than an afterthought

Why Operationism Doesn't Go Away: Extrascientific Incentives of Social-Psychological Research

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69038/2/10.1177_004839318601600302.pd

Qualitative Comparative Analysis: How Inductive Use and Measurement Error Lead to Problematic Inference

An increasing number of analyses in various subfields of political science employ boolean algebra as proposed in Ragin's (1987) qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). This type of analysis is perfectly justifiable if the goal is to test deterministic hypotheses under the assumption of error-free measures of the employed variables. My contention is, however, that only in a very few research areas are our theories sufficiently advanced to yield deterministic hypotheses. Also, given the nature of our objects of study, error-free measures are largely an illusion. Hence, it is unsurprising that many studies employ QCA inductively and gloss over possible measurement errors. In this paper I address these issues and demonstrate the consequences of these problems with simple empirical examples. In an analysis similar to Monte Carlo simulation I show that using boolean algebra in an exploratory fashion without considering possible measurement errors may lead to dramatically misleading inferences. I then suggest remedies that help researchers to circumvent some of these pitfalls

Reassessing Britain’s ‘post-war consensus’: the politics of reason 1945–1979

Since the late-1970s, scholars have been engaged in a vibrant debate about the nature of post-war British politics. While some writers have suggested that the three decades that succeeded the Second World War witnessed a bi-partisan consensus on key policy questions, others have argued that it was conflict, not agreement, that marked the period. This article offers a novel contribution to this controversy by drawing attention to the epistemological beliefs of the Labour and Conservative parties. It argues that once these beliefs are considered, it becomes possible to reconcile some of the competing claims made by proponents and critics of the ‘post-war consensus’ thesis. Labour and Conservative leaders may have been wedded to different beliefs, but they also shared a common enthusiasm for empiricist reasoning and were both reluctant to identify fixed political ‘ends’ that they sought to realise. Consequently, they were both committed to evolutionary forms of change, and they eschewed the notion that any social or political arrangement was of universal value

Promoting novelty, rigor, and style in energy social science: towards codes of practice for appropriate methods and research design

A series of weaknesses in creativity, research design, and quality of writing continue to handicap energy social science. Many studies ask uninteresting research questions, make only marginal contributions, and lack innovative methods or application to theory. Many studies also have no explicit research design, lack rigor, or suffer from mangled structure and poor quality of writing. To help remedy these shortcomings, this Review offers suggestions for how to construct research questions; thoughtfully engage with concepts; state objectives; and appropriately select research methods. Then, the Review offers suggestions for enhancing theoretical, methodological, and empirical novelty. In terms of rigor, codes of practice are presented across seven method categories: experiments, literature reviews, data collection, data analysis, quantitative energy modeling, qualitative analysis, and case studies. We also recommend that researchers beware of hierarchies of evidence utilized in some disciplines, and that researchers place more emphasis on balance and appropriateness in research design. In terms of style, we offer tips regarding macro and microstructure and analysis, as well as coherent writing. Our hope is that this Review will inspire more interesting, robust, multi-method, comparative, interdisciplinary and impactful research that will accelerate the contribution that energy social science can make to both theory and practice

The re-discovery of contemplation through science : with Tom McLeish, “The Re-Discovery of Contemplation through Science: Boyle Lecture 2021”; Rowan Williams, “The Re-Discovery of Contemplation through Science: A Response to Tom McLeish”; Fraser Watts, “Discussion of the Boyle Lecture 2021”; and Tom McLeish, “Response to Boyle Lecture 2021 Panel and Participant Discussion.”

Some of the early-modern changes in the social framing of science, while often believed to be essential, are shown to be contingent. They contribute to the flawed public narrative around science today, and especially to the misconceptions around science and religion. Four are examined in detail, each of which contributes to the demise of the contemplative stance that science both requires and offers. They are: (1) a turn from an immersed subject to the pretense of a pure objectivity, (2) a turn from imagination as a legitimate pathway to knowledge, (3) a turn from shared and participative science to a restricted professionalism, and (4) an overprosaic reading of the metaphor of the “Book of Nature.” All four, but especially the imperative to consider reading nature as poetry, and a deeper examination of the entanglements between poetry and theoretical science, draw unavoidably on theological ideas, and contribute to a developing “theology of science.”