162 research outputs found
Education for the sustainable global citizen:what can we learn from Stoic philosophy and Freirean environmental pedagogies?
In support of sustainable development, the United Nations launched its Global Education First Initiative with the aims of accelerating progress towards universal access to education and good quality learning whilst fostering global citizenship. This paper explores how and to what extent Stoic virtue ethics and critical Freirean ecopedagogies can advance the UNâs vision for progressive educational systems with transformative societal effects. We propose an integrated solution that provides ecopedagogical concepts a more robust philosophical foundation whilst also offering Stoicism additional tools to tackle those 21st century problems, such as climate change and environmental degradation, that ancient Stoics could not have envisioned nor scientifically understood. The result of the paper is the preliminary theoretical underpinnings of an educational framework that facilitates progress towards both individual and collective wellbeing whilst also encompassing planetary level concerns so as to holistically promote and plan for a fuller expression of the terms âsustainable developmentâ and âglobal citizenâ
An Integral Spectral Representation of the Propagator for the Wave Equation in the Kerr Geometry
We consider the scalar wave equation in the Kerr geometry for Cauchy data
which is smooth and compactly supported outside the event horizon. We derive an
integral representation which expresses the solution as a superposition of
solutions of the radial and angular ODEs which arise in the separation of
variables. In particular, we prove completeness of the solutions of the
separated ODEs.
This integral representation is a suitable starting point for a detailed
analysis of the long-time dynamics of scalar waves in the Kerr geometry.Comment: 41 pages, 4 figures, minor correction
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Use of Spatial Communication in Aphasia
Background: Spatial communication consists of both verbal spatial language and gesture. There has been minimal research investigating the use of spatial communication, and even less focussing on people with aphasia.
Aims: The aims of this exploratory study were to describe the frequency and variability of spatial language and gesture use by three participants with aphasia in comparison to nine control participants. This included: 1) frequency of gestures; 2) types of gesture; 3) number of spatial descriptions described by gestures but no language; and 4) frequency and variety of locative prepositional, verb, and noun phrases.
Methods & Procedures: Each participant was videoed undertaking 11 spatial communication tasks: four description tasks, and seven tasks involving directing the researcher in the placement of objects or pictures. Gestures and language produced were transcribed and analysed.
Outcomes & Results: Participants with aphasia used significantly more gesture. Participants with aphasia also used more gesture without spoken phrases when spatial vocabulary was unavailable. Finally, there were differences between the participants with regards to the types of gesture that they used when they were unable to access language.
Conclusion & Implications: The results suggest that the analysis of gesture produced by people with aphasia may provide insight into their underlying language impairment. As this was an exploratory study, with just three participants with aphasia, further research is needed
Inextendible Schwarzschild black hole with a single exterior: How thermal is the Hawking radiation?
Several approaches to Hawking radiation on Schwarzschild spacetime rely in
some way or another on the fact that the Kruskal manifold has two causally
disconnected exterior regions. We investigate the Hawking(-Unruh) effect for a
real scalar field on the \RPthree geon: an inextendible, globally hyperbolic,
space and time orientable eternal black hole spacetime that is locally
isometric to Kruskal but contains only one exterior region. The
Hartle-Hawking-like vacuum~\hhvacgeon, which can be characterized
alternatively by the positive frequency properties along the horizons or by the
complex analytic properties of the Feynman propagator, turns out to contain
exterior region Boulware modes in correlated pairs, and any operator in the
exterior that only couples to one member of each correlated Boulware pair has
thermal expectation values in the usual Hawking temperature. Generic operators
in the exterior do not have this special form; however, we use a Bogoliubov
transformation, a particle detector analysis, and a particle
emission-absorption analysis that invokes the analytic properties of the
Feynman propagator, to argue that \hhvacgeon appears as a thermal bath with
the standard Hawking temperature to any exterior observer at asymptotically
early and late Schwarzschild times. A~(naive) saddle-point estimate for the
path-integral-approach partition function yields for the geon only half of the
Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of a Schwarzschild black hole with the same ADM
mass: possible implications of this result for the validity of path-integral
methods or for the statistical interpretation of black-hole entropy are
discussed. Analogous results hold for a Rindler observer in a flat spacetime
whose global properties mimic those of the geon.Comment: 53 pages, REVTex v3.1 with amsfonts and epsf, includes 5 eps figures.
(v2: Title and abstract expanded, minor comments added. v3: Minor typos
corrected.
Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain
A single dose of psilocybin, a psychedelic that acutely causes distortions of space-time perception and ego dissolution, produces rapid and persistent therapeutic effects in human clinical trial
A proof of the uniform boundedness of solutions to the wave equation on slowly rotating Kerr backgrounds
We consider Kerr spacetimes with parameters a and M such that |a|<< M,
Kerr-Newman spacetimes with parameters |Q|<< M, |a|<< M, and more generally,
stationary axisymmetric black hole exterior spacetimes which are sufficiently
close to a Schwarzschild metric with parameter M>0, with appropriate geometric
assumptions on the plane spanned by the Killing fields. We show uniform
boundedness on the exterior for sufficiently regular solutions to the scalar
homogeneous wave equation. In particular, the bound holds up to and including
the event horizon. No unphysical restrictions are imposed on the behaviour of
the solution near the bifurcation surface of the event horizon. The pointwise
estimate derives in fact from the uniform boundedness of a positive definite
energy flux. Note that in view of the very general assumptions, the
separability properties of the wave equation on the Kerr background are not
used.Comment: 71 pages, 3 figure
Supramolecular Assemblies Constructed by Cucurbituril-Catalyzed Click Reaction
Cataloged from PDF version of article.Cucurbituril homologues are multi-functional macrocycles that can find applications in many areas and have numerous interesting features setting them apart from the other macrocycles. Among them, the ability of one of the cucurbituril homologues, cucurbit[6]uril (CB6), to catalyze 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition in a regiospecific fashion is truly exceptional. Using this feature, small molecules can be clicked together to form complex structures in a very efficient way. Accordingly, in this article we review recent research involving the use of CB6-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition or the click reaction of CB6 in the construction of supramolecular assemblies including rotaxanes, pseudorotaxanes, polyrotaxanes, polypseudorotaxanes, molecular switches, machines, and nanovalves
Reconstructing retirement as an enterprising endeavour
This article explores issues of age and enterprise in later life as manifested in tensions between retiree and entrepreneurial identities. We utilise the concept of a discursive event to examine time-bound online data, specifically media texts and reader comments associated with the online news coverage on of an insurance company report. This report introduced the label Weary to describe âworking entrepreneurial and active retireesâ. Our analysis shows how keeping healthy and active are constructed as insufficient markers of a productive and successful older age. These markers are supplanted by a neoliberal discourse which prioritises enterprise and economic productivity in retirement. However, the Weary subject position has implications within this discourse which constrain the valued contribution of older adults to productive work yet deny access to this group to entrepreneurial endeavours. This highlights the de-stabilization of retirement and critical tensions in its discursive reconceptualization as a period of entrepreneurial endeavour
Quasi-Normal Modes of Stars and Black Holes
Perturbations of stars and black holes have been one of the main topics of
relativistic astrophysics for the last few decades. They are of particular
importance today, because of their relevance to gravitational wave astronomy.
In this review we present the theory of quasi-normal modes of compact objects
from both the mathematical and astrophysical points of view. The discussion
includes perturbations of black holes (Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstr\"om,
Kerr and Kerr-Newman) and relativistic stars (non-rotating and
slowly-rotating). The properties of the various families of quasi-normal modes
are described, and numerical techniques for calculating quasi-normal modes
reviewed. The successes, as well as the limits, of perturbation theory are
presented, and its role in the emerging era of numerical relativity and
supercomputers is discussed.Comment: 74 pages, 7 figures, Review article for "Living Reviews in
Relativity
Reinventing the rattling tin: How UK charities use Facebook in fundraising
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Using a multicase study approach, this paper explores how the three biggest UK cancer charities by donations use Facebook in their fundraising campaigns, in order to facilitate understanding of the dynamics of philanthropic asking in a social networking site-mediated environment. The analysis reveals that Facebook is primarily used to strengthen relationships with supporters, mainly via humanising the brand, fostering obligations, and encouraging social interaction. The mobilization of these relationships in fundraising is facilitated by persuasive strategies, including public recognition, authority, and the fostering of a sense of efficacy among fans, and the most common outcome of this mobilization is public endorsement of charities' fundraising campaigns via sharing. At a time when harsh public spending cuts have left gaps in charity funding that need to be filled by philanthropy, this study aims to make a practical contribution to knowledge by examining what works and how in Facebook fundraising
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