3,988 research outputs found
The long road from local communities to professional sport and the culture of the global sport industry for indigenous Australians
This article draws on the findings of a three-year, inter-disciplinary study conducted on the journeys of sixteen Australian Indigenous sportsmen from their first touch of the ‘footy’ to the most elite levels of Australian football and rugby league and the central role of culture in these journeys. The first stage of their journeys involved the development of expertise and a distinctively Indigenous approach to their sport from early childhood to around the age of around thirteen. The second stage involved dealing with the challenges of cultural transitioning from small, local communities and practices to professional sport and the global culture of the sport industry
Magnetothermodynamics: Measuring equations of state in a relaxed magnetohydrodynamic plasma
We report the first measurements of equations of state of a fully relaxed
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) laboratory plasma. Parcels of magnetized plasma,
called Taylor states, are formed in a coaxial magnetized plasma gun, and are
allowed to relax and drift into a closed flux conserving volume. Density, ion
temperature, and magnetic field are measured as a function of time as the
Taylor states compress and heat. The theoretically predicted MHD and double
adiabatic equations of state are compared to experimental measurements. We find
that the MHD equation of state is inconsistent with our data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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More-than-human participation: Design for sustainable smart city futures
In this forum we highlight innovative thought, design, and research in the area of interaction design and sustainability, illustrating the diversity of approaches across HCI communities. — Roy Bendor, Edito
Learning and interaction in groups with computers: when do ability and gender matter?
In the research reported in this paper, we attempt to identify the background and process factors influencing the effectiveness of groupwork with computers in terms of mathematics learning. The research used a multi-site case study design in six schools and involved eight groups of six mixed-sex, mixed-ability pupils (aged 9-12) undertaking three research tasks – two using Logo and one a database. Our findings suggest that, contrary to other recent research, the pupil characteristics of gender and ability have no direct influence on progress in group tasks with computers. However, status effects – pupils' perceptions of gender and ability – do have an effect on the functioning of the group, which in turn can impede progress for all pupils concerned
Characterization of neurophysiologic and neurocognitive biomarkers for use in genomic and clinical outcome studies of schizophrenia.
BackgroundEndophenotypes are quantitative, laboratory-based measures representing intermediate links in the pathways between genetic variation and the clinical expression of a disorder. Ideal endophenotypes exhibit deficits in patients, are stable over time and across shifts in psychopathology, and are suitable for repeat testing. Unfortunately, many leading candidate endophenotypes in schizophrenia have not been fully characterized simultaneously in large cohorts of patients and controls across these properties. The objectives of this study were to characterize the extent to which widely-used neurophysiological and neurocognitive endophenotypes are: 1) associated with schizophrenia, 2) stable over time, independent of state-related changes, and 3) free of potential practice/maturation or differential attrition effects in schizophrenia patients (SZ) and nonpsychiatric comparison subjects (NCS). Stability of clinical and functional measures was also assessed.MethodsParticipants (SZ n = 341; NCS n = 205) completed a battery of neurophysiological (MMN, P3a, P50 and N100 indices, PPI, startle habituation, antisaccade), neurocognitive (WRAT-3 Reading, LNS-forward, LNS-reorder, WCST-64, CVLT-II). In addition, patients were rated on clinical symptom severity as well as functional capacity and status measures (GAF, UPSA, SOF). 223 subjects (SZ n = 163; NCS n = 58) returned for retesting after 1 year.ResultsMost neurophysiological and neurocognitive measures exhibited medium-to-large deficits in schizophrenia, moderate-to-substantial stability across the retest interval, and were independent of fluctuations in clinical status. Clinical symptoms and functional measures also exhibited substantial stability. A Longitudinal Endophenotype Ranking System (LERS) was created to rank neurophysiological and neurocognitive biomarkers according to their effect sizes across endophenotype criteria.ConclusionsThe majority of neurophysiological and neurocognitive measures exhibited deficits in patients, stability over a 1-year interval and did not demonstrate practice or time effects supporting their use as endophenotypes in neural substrate and genomic studies. These measures hold promise for informing the "gene-to-phene gap" in schizophrenia research
The breakdown of the municipality as caring platform: lessons for co-design and co-learning in the age of platform capitalism
If municipalities were the caring platforms of the 19-20th century sharing economy, how does care manifest in civic structures of the current period? We consider how platforms - from the local initiatives of communities transforming neighbourhoods, to the city, in the form of the local authority - are involved, trusted and/or relied on in the design of shared services and amenities for the public good. We use contrasting cases of interaction between local government and civil society organisations in Sweden and the UK to explore trends in public service provision. We look at how care can manifest between state and citizens and at the roles that co-design and co-learning play in developing contextually sensitive opportunities for caring platforms. In this way, we seek to learn from platforms in transition about the importance of co-learning in political and structural contexts and make recommendations for the co-design of (digital) platforms to care with and for civil society
Spatial Modulation Microscopy for Real-Time Imaging of Plasmonic Nanoparticles and Cells
Spatial modulation microscopy is a technique originally developed for
quantitative spectroscopy of individual nano-objects. Here, a parallel
implementation of the spatial modulation microscopy technique is demonstrated
based on a line detector capable of demodulation at kHz frequencies. The
capabilities of the imaging system are shown using an array of plasmonic
nanoantennas and dendritic cells incubated with gold nanoparticles.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure
Density-potential mappings in quantum dynamics
In a recent letter [Europhys. Lett. 95, 13001 (2011)] the question of whether
the density of a time-dependent quantum system determines its external
potential was reformulated as a fixed point problem. This idea was used to
generalize the existence and uniqueness theorems underlying time-dependent
density functional theory. In this work we extend this proof to allow for more
general norms and provide a numerical implementation of the fixed-point
iteration scheme. We focus on the one-dimensional case as it allows for a more
in-depth analysis using singular Sturm-Liouville theory and at the same time
provides an easy visualization of the numerical applications in space and time.
We give an explicit relation between the boundary conditions on the density and
the convergence properties of the fixed-point procedure via the spectral
properties of the associated Sturm-Liouville operator. We show precisely under
which conditions discrete and continuous spectra arise and give explicit
examples. These conditions are then used to show that in the most physically
relevant cases the fixed point procedure converges. This is further
demonstrated with an example.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 3 table
Crater Morphometry and Scaling in Coarse, Rubble-Like Targets: Insights from Impact Experiments
Spacecraft images reveal that the asteroids Itokawa, Ryugu, and Bennu are covered with coarse, boulder-rich material [13]. Impactors that collide with these bodies encounter a target with extreme physical heterogeneity. Other bodies can also possess significant physical heterogeneity (e.g., megaregolith, layering, etc.). Such heterogeneities establish free surfaces and impedance contrasts that can affect shock propagation and attenuation. Therefore, such heterogeneities may also affect crater formation and excavation [4], melt generation [57] and crater scaling [4]. As described by [8,9], the extent to which target heterogeneity affects crater formation likely depends on how the length scale, d, of the heterogeneity (e.g., boulder size on a rubble-pile asteroid) compares to the width of the shock, w, generated by impact. Here we further test this hypothesis using impact experiments across a broad range of impact velocities and target grain sizes to systematically vary the ratio between the width of the shock and the diameter of target grains
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A Benefit of Context Reinstatement to Recognition Memory in Aging: The Role of Familiarity Processes
Reinstatement of encoding context facilitates memory for targets in young and older individuals (e.g., a word studied on a particular background scene is more likely to be remembered later if it is presented on the same rather than a different scene or no scene), yet older adults are typically inferior at recalling and recognizing target–context pairings. This study examined the mechanisms of the context effect in normal aging. Age differences in word recognition by context condition (original, switched, none, new), and the ability to explicitly remember target–context pairings were investigated using word–scene pairs (Experiment 1) and word–word pairs (Experiment 2). Both age groups benefited from context reinstatement in item recognition, although older adults were significantly worse than young adults at identifying original pairings and at discriminating between original and switched pairings. In Experiment 3, participants were given a three-alternative forced-choice recognition task that allowed older individuals to draw upon intact familiarity processes in selecting original pairings. Performance was age equivalent. Findings suggest that heightened familiarity associated with context reinstatement is useful for boosting recognition memory in aging
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