514 research outputs found
Artificial intelligence and the technological turn of public education privatization: In defence of democratic education
This article considers how the development of for-profit artificial intelligence (AI)
technologies fosters the privatization of public education and erodes the values
and practices of democratic education. The introduction situates the advent of
digital technologies in the context of the structural economic and ideological
shifts of the past 40 years. Such changes include neo-liberal restructuring, the
repressive school and social turn, changes in the use of positivist ideology in
schooling, the role of new technologies in social and cultural reproduction and
changing imperatives for capital accumulation. The article illustrates different uses
of AI as part of the technological turn of public education privatization. Examples
include: (1) adaptive learning technology, and transformations to teacher work
and conceptions of knowledge and learning; (2) biometric pedagogy and the
cultural politics of locating learning in the body; and (3) the convergence of impact
investing and digital surveillance technologies. The article considers how changes
in the ownership and control over different aspects of public education relate
to the cultural politics of knowledge and learning. It also examines how, under
the guise of disinterested objectivity and neutrality, particular class and cultural
ideologies and interests are promoted through new technologies, with significant
pedagogical, cultural, economic and political implications. The article concludes
by arguing that AI education is a site of cultural and political contestation and
must be comprehended as a form of representational politics. By showing a critical
pedagogical AI project, the article suggests that the anti-democratic tendencies
of most AI education is hardly inevitable or determined, but rather represents a
replication of long-standing ideologies
Systematics of String Loop Corrections in Type IIB Calabi-Yau Flux Compactifications
We study the behaviour of the string loop corrections to the N=1 4D
supergravity Kaehler potential that occur in flux compactifications of IIB
string theory on general Calabi-Yau three-folds. We give a low energy
interpretation for the conjecture of Berg, Haack and Pajer for the form of the
loop corrections to the Kaehler potential. We check the consistency of this
interpretation in several examples. We show that for arbitrary Calabi-Yaus, the
leading contribution of these corrections to the scalar potential is always
vanishing, giving an "extended no-scale structure". This result holds as long
as the corrections are homogeneous functions of degree -2 in the 2-cycle
volumes. We use the Coleman-Weinberg potential to motivate this cancellation
from the viewpoint of low-energy field theory. Finally we give a simple formula
for the 1-loop correction to the scalar potential in terms of the tree-level
Kaehler metric and the correction to the Kaehler potential. We illustrate our
ideas with several examples. A companion paper will use these results in the
study of Kaehler moduli stabilisation.Comment: 34 pages and 3 figures; typos corrected and references adde
Gaugino and Scalar Masses in the Landscape
In this letter we demonstrate the genericity of suppressed gaugino masses M_a
\sim m_{3/2}/ln(M_P/m_{3/2}) in the IIB string landscape, by showing that this
relation holds for D7-brane gauginos whenever the associated modulus is
stabilised by nonperturbative effects. Although m_{3/2} and M_a take many
different values across the landscape, the above small mass hierarchy is
maintained. We show that it is valid for models with an arbitrary number of
moduli and applies to both the KKLT and exponentially large volume approaches
to Kahler moduli stabilisation. In the latter case we explicitly calculate
gaugino and moduli masses for compactifications on the two-modulus Calabi-Yau
P^4_[1,1,1,6,9]. In the large-volume scenario we also show that soft scalar
masses are approximately universal with m_i^2 \sim m_{3/2}^2 (1 + \epsilon_i),
with the non-universality parametrised by \epsilon_i \sim 1/ln (M_P/m_{3/2})^2
\sim 1/1000. We briefly discuss possible phenomenological implications of our
results.Comment: 15 pages, JHEP style; v2. reference adde
Volume Stabilization via Corrections in Type IIB Theory with Fluxes
We consider the Type IIB string theory in the presence of various extra
-brane pairs compactified on a warped Calabi-Yau threefold that
admits a conifold singularity. We demonstrate that the volume modulus can be
stabilized perturbatively at a non-supersymmetric vacuum by the
effective potential that includes the stringy correction
obtained by Becker {\it et al.} together with a combination of positive tension
and anomalous negative tension terms generated by the additional
7-brane-antibrane pairs.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, parts of introduction and conclusions are
modifie
Open Problems on Central Simple Algebras
We provide a survey of past research and a list of open problems regarding
central simple algebras and the Brauer group over a field, intended both for
experts and for beginners.Comment: v2 has some small revisions to the text. Some items are re-numbered,
compared to v
Australian wine consumersâ acceptance of and attitudes toward the use of additives in wine and food production
Additives are routinely used in food and wine production to enhance product quality and/or prevent spoilage. Compared with other industries, the wine industry is only permitted to use a limited number of additives. Whereas flavor additives are often used to intensify the aroma and flavor of foods and beverages, the addition of flavorings to wine contravenes the legal definition of wine. Given the current legislation, it is perhaps not surprising that the potential use of food additives in wine production has not been explored. This study therefore investigated Australian wine consumers' acceptance of and attitudes toward the use of additives in food and wine production. Consumers (n=1,031) were segmented based on their self-reported wine knowledge (ie, subjective knowledge). Using these ratings, low (n=271), medium (n=528), and high (n=232) knowledge segments were identified. Consumers considered natural flavorings and colors, and additives associated with health benefits (eg, vitamins, minerals, and omega 3 fatty acids), to be acceptable food additives, irrespective of their level of wine knowledge. In contrast, the use of winemaking additives, even commonly used and legally permitted additives such as tartaric acid, preservatives, oak chips, and tannins, were considered far less acceptable, particularly, by less knowledgeable consumers. Surprisingly, natural flavorings were considered more acceptable than currently used winemaking additives. Consumers were therefore asked to identify the flavors they would most prefer in white and red wines. Fruit flavors featured prominently in consumer responses, eg, lemon and apple for white wines and blackcurrant and raspberry for red wines, but vanilla and/or chocolate, ie, attributes typically associated with oak maturation, were also suggested.Yaelle Saltman, Trent E Johnson, Kerry L Wilkinson, Susan EP Bastia
A New Handle on de Sitter Compactifications
We construct a large new class of de Sitter (and anti de Sitter) vacua of
critical string theory from flux compactifications on products of Riemann
surfaces. In the construction, the leading effects stabilizing the moduli are
perturbative. We show that these effects self-consistently dominate over
standard estimates for further and quantum corrections, via
tuning available from large flux and brane quantum numbers.Comment: 26 pages, harvmac big. v2: Correction generalizing specific
ingredients required for tunable negative term; conclusions and structure of
potential unchange
Nonrenormalization of Flux Superpotentials in String Theory
Recent progress in understanding modulus stabilization in string theory
relies on the existence of a non-renormalization theorem for the 4D
compactifications of Type IIB supergravity which preserve N=1 supersymmetry. We
provide a simple proof of this non-renormalization theorem for a broad class of
Type IIB vacua using the known symmetries of these compactifications, thereby
putting them on a similar footing as the better-known non-renormalization
theorems of heterotic vacua without fluxes. The explicit dependence of the
tree-level flux superpotential on the dilaton field makes the proof more subtle
than in the absence of fluxes.Comment: 16 pages, no figures. Final version, to appear in JHEP. Arguments for
validity of R-symmetry made more explicit. Minor extra comments and
references adde
"Big" Divisor D3/D7 Swiss Cheese Phenomenology
We review progress made over the past couple of years in the field of Swiss
Cheese Phenomenology involving a mobile space-time filling D3-brane and
stack(s) of fluxed D7-branes wrapping the "big" (as opposed to the "small")
divisor in (the orientifold of a) Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau. The topics reviewed
include reconciliation of large volume cosmology and phenomenology, evaluation
of soft supersymmetry breaking parameters, one-loop RG-flow equations'
solutions for scalar masses, obtaining fermionic (possibly first two
generations' quarks/leptons) mass scales in the O(MeV-GeV)-regime as well as
(first two generations') neutrino masses (and their one-loop RG flow) of around
an eV. The heavy sparticles and the light fermions indicate the possibility of
"split SUSY" large volume scenario.Comment: Invited review for MPLA, 14 pages, LaTe
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