1,608 research outputs found
Can a nudge keep you warm? Using nudges to reduce excess winter deaths: insight from the Keeping Warm in Later Life Project (KWILLT)
Nudges are interventions that aim to change people's behaviour through changing the environment in which they choose rather than appealing to their reasoning. Nudges have been proposed as of possible use in relation to health-related behaviour. However, nudges have been criticized as ethically dubious because they bypass peoples reasoning and (anyway) are of little help in relation to affecting ill-health that results from social determinants, such as poverty. Reducing the rate of excess winter deaths (EWDs) is a public health priority; however, EWD seems clearly to be socially determined such that nudges arguably have little role. This article defends two claims: (i) nudges could have a place in tackling even the heavily socially determined problem of EWD. We draw on evidence from an empirical study, the Keeping Warm in Later Life Project (KWILLT), to argue that in some cases the risk of cold is within the personâs control to some extent such that environmental modifications to influence behaviour such as nudges are possible. (ii) Some uses of behavioural insights in the form of nudges are acceptable, including some in the area of EWD. We suggest a question-based framework by which to judge the ethical acceptability of nudges
Skyrmions from gravitational instantons
We propose a construction of Skyrme fields from holonomy of the spin
connection of gravitational instantons. The procedure is implemented for
Atiyah-Hitchin and Taub-NUT instantons.
The skyrmion resulting from the Taub-NUT is given explicitly on the space of
orbits of a left translation inside the whole isometry group. The domain of the
Taub-NUT skyrmion is a trivial circle bundle over the Poincare disc. The
position of the skyrmion depends on the Taub-NUT mass parameter, and its
topological charge is equal to two.Comment: Major changes: The Atiyah-Hitchin manifold and the corresponding
skyrmion discussed in more detail, gauge fixing procedure clarified, earlier
errors corrected. Final version, to appear in Proceedings of the Royal
Society
Discovery of nearly coherent oscillations with a frequency of ~567 Hz during type-I X-ray bursts of the X-ray transient and eclipsing binary X 1658-298
We report the discovery of nearly coherent oscillations with a frequency of
567 Hz during type-I X-ray bursts from the X-ray transient and eclipsing binary
X 1658-298. If these oscillations are directly related to the neutron star
rotation then the spin period of the neutron star in X 1658-298 is 1.8 ms. The
oscillations can be present during the rise or decay phase of the bursts.
Oscillations during the decay phase of the bursts show an increase in the
frequency of 0.5 to 1 Hz. However, in one particular burst the oscillations
reappear at the end of the decay phase at about 571.5 Hz. This represents an
increase in oscillation frequency of about 5 Hz which is the largest frequency
change seen so far in a burst oscillation. It is unclear if such a large change
can be accommodated by present models used to explain the frequency evolution
of the oscillations. The oscillations at 571.5 Hz are unusually soft compared
to the oscillations found at 567 Hz. We also observed several bursts during
which the oscillations are detected at much lower significance or not at all.
Most of these bursts happen during periods of X-ray dipping behavior,
suggesting that the X-ray dipping might decrease the amplitude of the
oscillations (although several complications exist with this simple picture).
We discuss our discovery in the framework of the neutron star spin
interpretation.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters (21 December 2000). Addition
of a table containing the burst propertie
Standalone, Supplemental, and Embedded Microlearning Development Alternatives for Federal Programs during a Pandemic
Microlearning has been studied since the early 2000âs. Comparisons of microlearning and eLearning are found throughout the research. Some research has presented developing microlearning as an alternative to developing eLearning courses. However, this action research paper is written in support of developing microlearning to be implemented alongside or as a component of eLearning. Microlearning benefits learners because it can be developed as standalone, supplemental, or embedded course content. A literature review and close examination of a series of microlearning videos developed for a federal program will highlight how microlearning can be developed as standalone or supplemental course content that can then be embedded into eLearning course content
Scalar--flat K\"ahler metrics with conformal Bianchi V symmetry
We provide an affirmative answer to a question posed by Tod \cite{Tod:1995b},
and construct all four-dimensional Kahler metrics with vanishing scalar
curvature which are invariant under the conformal action of Bianchi V group.
The construction is based on the combination of twistor theory and the
isomonodromic problem with two double poles. The resulting metrics are
non-diagonal in the left-invariant basis and are explicitly given in terms of
Bessel functions and their integrals. We also make a connection with the LeBrun
ansatz, and characterise the associated solutions of the SU(\infty) Toda
equation by the existence a non-abelian two-dimensional group of point
symmetries.Comment: Dedicated to Maciej Przanowski on the occasion of his 65th birthday.
Minor corrections. To appear in CQ
Post-Glitch RXTE-PCA Observations of the Vela Pulsar
We report the results of analysis of observations of the Vela Pulsar by PCA
on RXTE. Our data consists of two parts. The first part contains observations
at 1, 4, and 9 days after the glitch in 1996 and has 27000 sec. total exposure
time. The second part of observations were performed three months after this
glitch and have a total exposure time of 93000 sec. We found pulsations in both
sets. The observed spectrum is a power-law with no apparent change in flux or
count rate. The theoretical expectations of increase in flux due to internal
heating after a glitch are smaller than the uncertainty of the observations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures in 9 ps/eps files. Accepted for publication in A&A
Main Journa
- âŠ