Mobilizing Public Will For Social Change

Examines the theory and strategies of "public will" campaigns and offers tangible criteria for their evaluation. It provides a rich inventory of strategies for use in mobilizing the public will through an integration of models of agenda building, social problem construction, issues management, social movements, media advocacy, and social capital. In addition, the paper provides cases and examples of public will campaigns directed at various social problems, along with criteria for evaluating these campaigns at various stages of a social problem's life cycle

Semirelativistic stability of N-boson systems bound by 1/r pair potentials

We analyze a system of self-gravitating identical bosons by means of a semirelativistic Hamiltonian comprising the relativistic kinetic energies of the involved particles and added (instantaneous) Newtonian gravitational pair potentials. With the help of an improved lower bound to the bottom of the spectrum of this Hamiltonian, we are able to enlarge the known region for relativistic stability for such boson systems against gravitational collapse and to sharpen the predictions for their maximum stable mass.Comment: 11 pages, considerably enlarged introduction and motivation, remainder of the paper unchange

Maxwell's theory on a post-Riemannian spacetime and the equivalence principle

The form of Maxwell's theory is well known in the framework of general relativity, a fact that is related to the applicability of the principle of equivalence to electromagnetic phenomena. We pose the question whether this form changes if torsion and/or nonmetricity fields are allowed for in spacetime. Starting from the conservation laws of electric charge and magnetic flux, we recognize that the Maxwell equations themselves remain the same, but the constitutive law must depend on the metric and, additionally, may depend on quantities related to torsion and/or nonmetricity. We illustrate our results by putting an electric charge on top of a spherically symmetric exact solution of the metric-affine gauge theory of gravity (comprising torsion and nonmetricity). All this is compared to the recent results of Vandyck.Comment: 9 pages, REVTeX, no figures; minor changes, version to be published in Class. Quantum Gra

Soliton surfaces associated with symmetries of ODEs written in Lax representation

The main aim of this paper is to discuss recent results on the adaptation of the Fokas-Gel'fand procedure for constructing soliton surfaces in Lie algebras, which was originally derived for PDEs [Grundland, Post 2011], to the case of integrable ODEs admitting Lax representations. We give explicit forms of the \g-valued immersion functions based on conformal symmetries involving the spectral parameter, a gauge transformation of the wave function and generalized symmetries of the linear spectral problem. The procedure is applied to a symmetry reduction of the static $\phi^4$-field equations leading to the Jacobian elliptic equation. As examples, we obtain diverse types of surfaces for different choices of Jacobian elliptic functions for a range of values of parameters.Comment: 14 Pages, 2 figures Conference Proceedings for QST7 Pragu

An infinite family of superintegrable Hamiltonians with reflection in the plane

We introduce a new infinite class of superintegrable quantum systems in the plane. Their Hamiltonians involve reflection operators. The associated Schr\"odinger equations admit separation of variables in polar coordinates and are exactly solvable. The angular part of the wave function is expressed in terms of little -1 Jacobi polynomials. The spectra exhibit "accidental" degeneracies. The superintegrability of the model is proved using the recurrence relation approach. The (higher-order) constants of motion are constructed and the structure equations of the symmetry algebra obtained.Comment: 19 page

Participation and satisfaction after spinal cord injury: results of a vocational and leisure outcome study

Study design: Survey. Objectives: Insight in (1) the changes in participation in vocational and leisure activities and (2) satisfaction with the current participation level of people with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) after reintegration in society. Design: Descriptive analysis of data from a questionnaire. Setting: Rehabilitation centre with special department for patients with SCIs, Groningen, The Netherlands. Subjects: A total of 57 patients with traumatic SCI living in the community, who were admitted to the rehabilitation centre two to 12 years before the current assessment. Main outcome measures: Changes in participation in activities; current life satisfaction; support and unmet needs. Results: Participation expressed in terms of hours spent on vocational and leisure activities changed to a great extent after the SCI. This was mainly determined by a large reduction of hours spent on paid work. While 60% of the respondents successfully reintegrated in work, many changes took place in the type and extent of the job. Loss of work was partially compensated with domestic and leisure activities. Sports activities were reduced substantially. The change in participation level and compensation for the lost working hours was not significantly associated with the level of SCI-specific health problems and disabilities. As was found in other studies, most respondents were satisfied with their lives. Determinants of a negative life satisfaction several years following SCI were not easily indicated. Reduced quality of life was particularly related to an unsatisfactory work and leisure situation. Conclusions: Most people with SCI in this study group were able to resume work and were satisfied with their work and leisure situation

Understanding and Finding Solutions to the Problem of Sedimentation in the National Wildlife Refuge System

The National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System) is a collection of public lands maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for migratory birds and other wildlife. Wetlands on individual National Wildlife Refuges (Refuges) may be at risk of increased sedimentation because of land use and water management practices. Increased sedimentation can reduce wetland habitat quality by altering hydrologic function, degrading water quality, and inhibiting growth of vegetation and invertebrates. On Refuges negatively affected by increased sedimentation, managers have to address complex questions about how to best remediate and mitigate the negative effects. The best way to account for these complexities is often not clear. On other Refuges, managers may not know whether sedimentation is a problem. Decision makers in the Refuge System may need to allocate resources to studying which Refuges could be at risk. Such analyses would help them understand where to direct support for managing increased sedimentation. In this paper, we summarize a case study demonstrating the use of decision-analytic tools in the development of a sedimentation management plan for Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge, Minnesota. Using what we learned from that process, we surveyed other Refuges in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3 (an area encompassing the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin) and Region 6 (an area encompassing the states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming) about whether they experience sediment-related impacts to management. Our results show that cases of management being negatively affected by increased sedimentation are not isolated. We suggest that the Refuge System conduct a comprehensive and systematic assessment of increased sedimentation among Refuges to understand the importance of sedimentation in context with other management problems that Refuges face. The results of such an assessment could guide how the Refuge System allocates resources to studying and managing widespread stressors

Relativistic contraction and related effects in noninertial frames

Although there is no relative motion among different points on a rotating disc, each point belongs to a different noninertial frame. This fact, not recognized in previous approaches to the Ehrenfest paradox and related problems, is exploited to give a correct treatment of a rotating ring and a rotating disc. Tensile stresses are recovered, but, contrary to the prediction of the standard approach, it is found that an observer on the rim of the disc will see equal lengths of other differently moving objects as an inertial observer whose instantaneous position and velocity are equal to that of the observer on the rim. The rate of clocks at various positions, as seen by various observers, is also discussed. Some results are generalized for observers arbitrarily moving in a flat or a curved spacetime. The generally accepted formula for the space line element in a non-time-orthogonal frame is found inappropriate in some cases. Use of Fermi coordinates leads to the result that for any observer the velocity of light is isotropic and is equal to $c$, providing that it is measured by propagating a light beam in a small neighborhood of the observer.Comment: 15 pages, significantly revised version, title changed, to appear in Phys. Rev.