Beyond ‘ignorance’: using the cultural stereotypes of Americans studying in the UK as a resource for learning and teaching about British culture

A course introducing British culture is a standard component of many study abroad programmes running in this country that are aimed at international students who will be spending a limited amount of time in the United Kingdom. However, it is not often acknowledged that such students possess a range of strong pre-conceptions about British culture and society prior to their arrival. Conventional teaching strategies assume student ignorance of the subject. However, an alternative approach which makes us of pre-arrival stereotypes can be more productive in terms of engaging students in active processes of comparative analysis of their new and existing knowledge. A case study of American student stereotypes of the British monarchy is presented and it is suggested that these can be used as the basis for refining student understanding of cultural politics in the United Kingdom. International students, therefore, should not be treated as being culturally ignorant of Britain in the sense of having no knowledge or opinions at all. Rather, it should be understood that they possess a culturally mediated state of subjectivity which I refer to as ‘ignorance’ and that this can become a valuable resource for teaching and learning

Brightness variations in totally-eclipsing binary GSC4589-2999

We present multi-colour CCD photometry of GSC4589-2999 obtained in 2008 and 2009. The observations indicate that the system is an active Algol binary. Based on the new data, the mean brightness of the system is decreasing through the years 2007-2009. The light curves obtained in 2008-2009 are modelled using the Wilson-Devinney code. We also discussed the light and colour variations of the system at different orbital phases. Evidence suggests that these brightness and colour variations are due to the rotation of unevenly distributed starspots on two components of the system.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Solving Problems of Practice in Education

The authors identify and discuss the many complexities involved in the translation of scientific information in the social sciences into forms usable for solving problems of practice in education. As a means of appropriately handling these complexities and the issues that arise, they prescribe a series of stages to be followed from the advent of a practitioner's situational problem to the design of a response to it. They assert that unless the process of translation is conducted with the prescribed level of understanding, appreciation, and rigor, the application of knowledge will be inaccurate.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68934/2/10.1177_107554708400600103.pd

Monitoring permanent CO2 storage by in situ mineral carbonation using a reactive tracer technique

AbstractIn situ mineral carbonation provides the most effective and permanent solution for geologic CO2 storage. Basaltic rocks have the potential to store large volumes of CO2 as (Ca, Mg, Fe) carbonates [1]. Existing monitoring and verification techniques for geologic CO2 storage are insufficient to quantitatively characterize solubility and mineral trapping in a geologic reservoir. We developed and tested a new reactive tracer technique for quantitative monitoring and detection of dissolved and chemically transformed CO2. The technique involves the active tagging of the injected CO2 with low levels of radiocarbon (14C) as a reactive tracer in combination with the injection of non-reactive tracers such as sulfurhexafluoride (SF6) and trifluoromethylsulphur pentafluoride (SF5CF3). The tracer technique has been applied at the CarbFix pilot injection site in Hellisheidi, Iceland as part of a comprehensive geochemical monitoring program during two injection phases; Phase III and IV. SF6 and SF5CF3 confirm the arrival of the injected CO2 and CO2+H2S solutions at the first observation well HN04, which is 125m west of the injection well at 520 m depth. The initial breakthrough of the migrating dissolved CO2 front occurred 63 and 62 days after injection began as evidenced by an initial peak in the SF6, SF5CF3, 14C, and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) concentrations. The major increase in the non-reactive tracer concentrations occurred several months after the initial breakthrough, although no major concentration increase has been observed for 14C and DIC suggesting that mineral reactions are dominant during CO2 injection

Power, norms and institutional change in the European Union: the protection of the free movement of goods

How do institutions of the European Union change? Using an institutionalist approach, this article highlights the interplay between power, cognitive limits, and the normative order that underpins institutional settings and assesses their impact upon the process of institutional change. Empirical evidence from recent attempts to reinforce the protection of the free movement of goods in the EU suggests that, under conditions of uncertainty, actors with ambiguous preferences assess attempts at institutional change on the basis of the historically defined normative order which holds a given institutional structure together. Hence, path dependent and incremental change occurs even when more ambitious and functionally superior proposals are on offer

Weakly-Bound Three-Body Systems with No Bound Subsystems

We investigate the domain of coupling constants which achieve binding for a 3-body system, while none of the 2-body subsystems is bound. We derive some general properties of the shape of the domain, and rigorous upper bounds on its size, using a Hall--Post decomposition of the Hamiltonian. Numerical illustrations are provided in the case of a Yukawa potential, using a simple variational method.Comment: gzipped ps with 11 figures included. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Einstein's quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas: non-statistical arguments for a new statistics

In this article, we analyze the third of three papers, in which Einstein presented his quantum theory of the ideal gas of 1924-1925. Although it failed to attract the attention of Einstein's contemporaries and although also today very few commentators refer to it, we argue for its significance in the context of Einstein's quantum researches. It contains an attempt to extend and exhaust the characterization of the monatomic ideal gas without appealing to combinatorics. Its ambiguities illustrate Einstein's confusion with his initial success in extending Bose's results and in realizing the consequences of what later became to be called Bose-Einstein statistics. We discuss Einstein's motivation for writing a non-combinatorial paper, partly in response to criticism by his friend Ehrenfest, and we paraphrase its content. Its arguments are based on Einstein's belief in the complete analogy between the thermodynamics of light quanta and of material particles and invoke considerations of adiabatic transformations as well as of dimensional analysis. These techniques were well-known to Einstein from earlier work on Wien's displacement law, Planck's radiation theory, and the specific heat of solids. We also investigate the possible role of Ehrenfest in the gestation of the theory.Comment: 57 pp

Signatures of Supernova Neutrino Oscillations into Extra Dimensions

We consider the mixing of muon and tau neutrinos with sterile fermion fields propagating in extra dimensions in the context of core collapse supernova physics, extending the analysis of the electron neutrino case done in a previous work. We show that the potentially dramatic modifications to the supernova evolution are prevented by a mechanism of feedback, so that no severe bounds on the parameters of the extra dimensions need to be imposed. Nevertheless, the supernova core evolution is significantly modified. We discuss the consequences on the delayed explosion mechanism and the compatibility with the SN1987A signal. Then, for the cases of both nu_{mu,tau} and nu_e mixing with bulk fermions, we analyse the distinctive features of the signal on Earth.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures; v2: minor changes, matches published versio

Lepton Flavour Violating Leptonic/Semileptonic Decays of Charged Leptons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We consider the leptonic and semileptonic (SL) lepton flavour violating (LFV) decays of the charged leptons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The formalism for evaluation of branching fractions for the SL LFV charged-lepton decays with one or two pseudoscalar mesons, or one vector meson in the final state, is given. Previous amplitudes for the SL LFV charged-lepton decays in MSSM are improved, for instance the $\gamma$-penguin amplitude is corrected to assure the gauge invariance. The decays are studied not only in the model-independent formulation of the theory in the frame of MSSM, but also within the frame of the minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model within which the parameters of the MSSM are determined. The latter model gives predictions for the neutrino-Dirac Yukawa coupling matrix, once free parameters in the model are appropriately fixed to accommodate the recent neutrino oscillation data. Using this unambiguous neutrino-Dirac Yukawa couplings, we calculate the LFV leptonic and SL decay processes assuming the minimal supergravity scenario. A very detailed numerical analysis is done to constrain the MSSM parameters. Numerical results for SL LFV processes are given, for instance for tau -> e (mu) pi0, tau -> e (mu) eta, tau -> e (mu) eta', tau -> e (mu) rho0, tau -> e (mu) phi, tau -> e (mu) omega, etc.Comment: 36 pages, 3 tables, 5 .eps figure

Cosmology of Brane Models with Radion Stabilization

We analyze the cosmology of the Randall-Sundrum model and that of compact brane models in general in the presence of a radius stabilization mechanism. We find that the expansion of our universe is generically in agreement with the expected effective four dimensional description. The constraint (which is responsible for the appearance of non-conventional cosmologies in these models) that must be imposed on the matter densities on the two branes in the theory without a stabilized radius is a consequence of requiring a static solution even in the absence of stabilization. Such constraints disappear in the presence of a stablizing potential, and the ordinary FRW (Friedmann-Robertson-Walker) equations are reproduced, with the expansion driven by the sum of the physical values of the energy densities on the two branes and in the bulk. For the case of the Randall-Sundrum model we examine the kinematics of the radion field, and find that corrections to the standard FRW equations are small for temperatures below the weak scale. We find that the radion field has renormalizable and unsuppressed couplings to Standard Model particles after electroweak symmetry breaking. These couplings may have important implications for collider searches. We comment on the possibility that matter off the TeV brane could serve as a dark matter candidate.Comment: 35 pages, Late