3,266 research outputs found
Developing a Theoretical Framework for Response: Creative Writing as Response in the Year 6 Primary Classroom
Focusing on the creative writing of Year 6 boys as they make the transition to Year 7, this article establishes a theoretical model for creative writing as response. In line with Bakhtinâs notion of utterances as âinterpersonalâ (1986), the model demonstrates the complexity of creative writing â the text is influencing of and influenced by an authorâs participation in âfigured worldsâ (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner and Cain 1998), but also influencing of and influenced by future respondents. This article suggests that âweaker framingâ (Bernstein 2000) in creative writing pedagogy has the potential to alter boysâ identities and refigure their worlds
Ogbu and the debate on educational achievement: an exploration of the links between education, migration, identity and belonging
This paper looks at some of the issues raised by Ogbuâs work in relation to the education of different minority ethnic groups. Ogbu poses questions such as the value attached to education,
its links to the future and its measurable outcomes in terms of âsuccessâ as experienced by black participants. The desire for better life chances leads families to consider migration to a new country or resettlement within the same country, thus making migration both a local and a global phenomenon. As an example, attention is drawn to the situation facing South Asian
children and their families in the UK. In terms of ethnicity and belonging, the wider question that is significant for many countries in the West after âNine-Elevenâ is the education of Muslim children. A consideration of this current situation throws Ogbuâs identification of âautonomous minorityâ into question. It is argued that a greater understanding of diverse needs has to be
accompanied by a concerted effort to confront racism and intolerance in schools and in society, thus enabling all communities to make a useful contribution and to avoid the âriskâ of failure and disenchantment
Living for the weekend: youth identities in northeast England
Consumption and consumerism are now accepted as key contexts for the construction of youth identities in de-industrialized Britain. This article uses empirical evidence from interviews with young people to suggest that claims of `new community' are overstated, traditional forms of friendship are receding, and increasingly atomized and instrumental youth identities are now being culturally constituted and reproduced by the pressures and anxieties created by enforced adaptation to consumer capitalism. Analysis of the data opens up the possibility of a critical rather than a celebratory exploration of the wider theoretical implications of this process
Fluctuations of water near extended hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces
We use molecular dynamics simulations of the SPC-E model of liquid water to
derive probability distributions for water density fluctuations in probe
volumes of different shapes and sizes, both in the bulk as well as near
hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. To obtain our results, we introduce a
biased sampling of coarse-grained densities, which in turn biases the actual
solvent density. The technique is easily combined with molecular dynamics
integration algorithms. Our principal result is that the probability for
density fluctuations of water near a hydrophobic surface, with or without
surface-water attractions, is akin to density fluctuations at the water-vapor
interface. Specifically, the probability of density depletion near the surface
is significantly larger than that in bulk. In contrast, we find that the
statistics of water density fluctuations near a model hydrophilic surface are
similar to that in the bulk
Hakim Revisited: Preference, Choice and the Postfeminist Gender Regime
Abstract
We revisit Hakimâs influential preference theory to demonstrate how it is both reflective of postfeminism and generative of its values and practices. We differentiate between two interpretations of postfeminism â first a surface level âsuccessful but obsoleteâ version articulated by Hakim and a second, multi-layered account of postfeminism as a discursive formation connected to a set of discourses around gender, feminism and femininity. Drawing on this latter version we make visible the embeddedness of postfeminism in preference theory highlighting its connection to the creation of a new postfeminist subjectivity based on an agentic and âchoosingâ femininity. We show how a consideration of preference theory in terms of the emergence and constitution of âthe female chooserâ, opens up aspects of Hakimâs thesis which to date have been overlooked. In addition, our postfeminist reading of preference theory draws out aspects of Hakimâs account which she herself understated. Specifically, within a contemporary context where equivalent priority is afforded to wage-work and care work, it is Hakimâs âadaptiveâ woman who exemplifies the new postfeminist subject required to perform well simultaneously in both the work and domestic domains
Hegemony through responsibilisation : getting working-class students into higher education in the United Kingdom
This article examines the role of the New Labour governmentsâ agenda for widening participation in higher education as a form of responsibilising discourse of working-class young people. Under the New Labour administrations of 1997â2010, a concerted attempt was made to attract working-class students into higher education through promotional initiatives such as the Aimhigher programme. Drawing from Raymond Williamsâ discussion of hegemony and also from Nikolas Roseâs concept of the âenterprising selfâ, this article examines three explanatory/promotional documents from the Aimhigher programme aimed at working-class young people and their parents. The documents are analysed as materialisations of a powerfully hegemonic discourse of âresponsibilisationâ towards participation in higher education. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the widening access agenda has shifted since the coalition government came to power in 2010
Kepler White Paper: Asteroseismology of Solar-Like Oscillators in a 2-Wheel Mission
We comment on the potential for continuing asteroseismology of solar-type and
red-giant stars in a 2-wheel Kepler Mission. Our main conclusion is that by
targeting stars in the ecliptic it should be possible to perform high-quality
asteroseismology, as long as favorable scenarios for 2-wheel pointing
performance are met. Targeting the ecliptic would potentially facilitate unique
science that was not possible in the nominal Mission, notably from the study of
clusters that are significantly brighter than those in the Kepler field. Our
conclusions are based on predictions of 2-wheel observations made by a space
photometry simulator, with information provided by the Kepler Project used as
input to describe the degraded pointing scenarios. We find that elevated levels
of frequency-dependent noise, consistent with the above scenarios, would have a
significant negative impact on our ability to continue asteroseismic studies of
solar-like oscillators in the Kepler field. However, the situation may be much
more optimistic for observations in the ecliptic, provided that pointing resets
of the spacecraft during regular desaturations of the two functioning reaction
wheels are accurate at the < 1 arcsec level. This would make it possible to
apply a post-hoc analysis that would recover most of the lost photometric
precision. Without this post-hoc correction---and the accurate re-pointing it
requires---the performance would probably be as poor as in the Kepler-field
case. Critical to our conclusions for both fields is the assumed level of
pointing noise (in the short-term jitter and the longer-term drift). We suggest
that further tests will be needed to clarify our results once more detail and
data on the expected pointing performance becomes available, and we offer our
assistance in this work.Comment: NASA Kepler Mission White Paper; 10 pages, 2 figure
Molecular gas in NGC6946
We present imaging of molecular gas emission in the star-forming spiral
galaxy NGC6946. Our CO(1-0) and CO(3-2) images, made at 22" resolution with the
IRAM 30-m and the Heinrich Hertz 10-m radio telescopes, are the most extensive
CO observations of this galaxy and are among the most extensive observations of
molecular gas in any spiral galaxy. The molecular component in NGC6946 is
unusually massive, with a ratio of molecular to atomic Hydrogen of 0.57. A star
formation efficiency image for NGC6946 ranges by over two orders of magnitude
with highest values found in the northeastern spiral arm, and anticorrelates
with the 6cm polarized emission image, which traces the regular part of the
magnetic field. We analyse the ISM in NGC6946's disk by making 1-D and 2-D
comparisons of images made in several wavebands. A point-by-point correlation
technique finds that the molecular gas is closely associated with the
7micron-emitting dust. The high correlation found between the MIR emission and
the radio continuum at 6cm cannot be due to dust heating and gas ionization in
star-forming regions because the thermal radio emission is less correlated with
the MIR than the nonthermal emission. A coupling of magnetic fields to gas
clouds is proposed as a possible scenario.Comment: A&A accepted, 23 pages, 11 figures. Version with high resolution
figures available at: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~wwalsh/sp.htm
Neural Network Parameterizations of Electromagnetic Nucleon Form Factors
The electromagnetic nucleon form-factors data are studied with artificial
feed forward neural networks. As a result the unbiased model-independent
form-factor parametrizations are evaluated together with uncertainties. The
Bayesian approach for the neural networks is adapted for chi2 error-like
function and applied to the data analysis. The sequence of the feed forward
neural networks with one hidden layer of units is considered. The given neural
network represents a particular form-factor parametrization. The so-called
evidence (the measure of how much the data favor given statistical model) is
computed with the Bayesian framework and it is used to determine the best form
factor parametrization.Comment: The revised version is divided into 4 sections. The discussion of the
prior assumptions is added. The manuscript contains 4 new figures and 2 new
tables (32 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables
A large ungated TPC with GEM amplification
A Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is an ideal device for the detection of charged particle tracks in a large volume covering a solid angle of almost . The high density of hits on a given particle track facilitates the task of pattern recognition in a high-occupancy environment and in addition provides particle identification by measuring the specific energy loss for each track. For these reasons, TPCs with Multiwire Proportional Chamber (MWPC) amplification have been and are widely used in experiments recording heavy-ion collisions. A significant drawback, however, is the large dead time of the order of 1 ms per event generated by the use of a gating grid, which is mandatory to prevent ions created in the amplification region from drifting back into the drift volume, where they would severely distort the drift path of subsequent tracks. For experiments with higher event rates this concept of a conventional TPC operating with a triggered gating grid can therefore not be applied without a significant loss of data. A continuous readout of the signals is the more appropriate way of operation. This, however, constitutes a change of paradigm with considerable challenges to be met concerning the amplification region, the design and bandwidth of the readout electronics, and the data handling. A mandatory prerequisite for such an operation is a sufficiently good suppression of the ion backflow from the avalanche region, which otherwise limits the tracking and particle identification capabilities of such a detector. Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) are a promising candidate to combine excellent spatial resolution with an intrinsic suppression of ions. In this paper we describe the design, construction and the commissioning of a large TPC with GEM amplification and without gating grid (GEM-TPC). The design requirements have driven innovations in the construction of a light-weight field-cage, a supporting media flange, the GEM amplification and the readout system, which are presented in this paper. We further describe the support infrastructure such as gas, cooling and slow control. Finally, we report on the operation of the GEM-TPC in the FOPI experiment, and describe the calibration procedures which are applied to achieve the design performance of the device.Peer reviewe
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