2,120 research outputs found
Problems posing as solutions: Criticising pragmatism as a paradigm for mixed research
Mixed research is a methodology of growing importance both within and without education. This type of research forces researchers to reconcile conflicting ways of justifying and understanding research with results that have the potential to be forward pointing for all researchers. As mixed research has grown, mixed research has gained an increasingly solidified identity which is increasingly associated with the pragmatic paradigm. This paper seeks to describe and criticise pragmatism as a paradigm for mixed research. We identify six features of pragmatism which we argue render it unfit for purpose. 1. That it is a “paradigm of convenience” 2. That it takes a consequentialist view of good research. 3. That it takes a consequentialist view of truth. 4. That it assumes the answers to epistemic questions is “somewhere in the middle” 5. That it priorities the research question, rather than ontology or epistemology 6. That it treats itself as a prerequisite for mixed research. We argue that in prioritising flexibility and practicality over principles, pragmatism loses the ability to offer guidance to researchers. Furthermore, many of the issues with pragmatism arise from a conflation of paradigm and method. I.e., by thinking that there are quantitative and qualitative paradigms. We conclude that traditional paradigms are better served to act as a paradigm for mixed research
Criterion for purely elastic Taylor-Couette instability in the flows of shear-banding fluids
In the past twenty years, shear-banding flows have been probed by various
techniques, such as rheometry, velocimetry and flow birefringence. In micellar
solutions, many of the data collected exhibit unexplained spatio-temporal
fluctuations. Recently, it has been suggested that those fluctuations originate
from a purely elastic instability of the flow. In cylindrical Couette geometry,
the instability is reminiscent of the Taylor-like instability observed in
viscoelastic polymer solutions. In this letter, we describe how the criterion
for purely elastic Taylor-Couette instability should be adapted to
shear-banding flows. We derive three categories of shear-banding flows with
curved streamlines, depending on their stability.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Language and the development of intercultural competence in an 'internationalised' university: staff and student perspectives
Within the currently diverse UK higher education environment, one important aspect of learning is the development of intercultural competence. The study that informs this paper investigated the ways intercultural competence was perceived as being enhanced or inhibited through current language and educational practices at a university that positions itself as internationally engaged and globally recognised. The project employed a multiple-case study design, examining eight academic programmes drawn from four different broad disciplinary groupings: social sciences, science, engineering, and management. Data were collected through individual, focus group and stimulated recall interviews, the latter using class observation recordings as a stimulus. The study revealed the ways in which language was exploited by both staff and students to convey particular meanings within an intercultural context. It was found that language choices, register and style were perceived as contributing to the pragmatic impact of either reinforcing barriers to or promoting intercultural competence development
Potential "ways of thinking" about the shear-banding phenomenon
Shear-banding is a curious but ubiquitous phenomenon occurring in soft
matter. The phenomenological similarities between the shear-banding transition
and phase transitions has pushed some researchers to adopt a 'thermodynamical'
approach, in opposition to the more classical 'mechanical' approach to fluid
flows. In this heuristic review, we describe why the apparent dichotomy between
those approaches has slowly faded away over the years. To support our
discussion, we give an overview of different interpretations of a single
equation, the diffusive Johnson-Segalman (dJS) equation, in the context of
shear-banding. We restrict ourselves to dJS, but we show that the equation can
be written in various equivalent forms usually associated with opposite
approaches. We first review briefly the origin of the dJS model and its initial
rheological interpretation in the context of shear-banding. Then we describe
the analogy between dJS and reaction-diffusion equations. In the case of
anisotropic diffusion, we show how the dJS governing equations for steady shear
flow are analogous to the equations of the dynamics of a particle in a quartic
potential. Going beyond the existing literature, we then draw on the Lagrangian
formalism to describe how the boundary conditions can have a key impact on the
banding state. Finally, we reinterpret the dJS equation again and we show that
a rigorous effective free energy can be constructed, in the spirit of early
thermodynamic interpretations or in terms of more recent approaches exploiting
the language of irreversible thermodynamics.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, tutorial revie
Precision metering of microliter volumes of biological fluids in micro-gravity
Concepts were demonstrated and investigated for transferring accurately known and reproducible microliter volumes of biological fluids from sample container onto dry chemistry slides in microgravity environment. Specific liquid transfer tip designs were compared. Information was obtained for design of a liquid sample handling system to enable clinical chemical analysis in microgravity. Disposable pipet tips and pipet devices that were designed to transfer microliter volumes of biological fluid from a (test tube) sample container in 1-G environment were used during microgravity periods of parabolic trajectories of the KC-135 aircraft. The transfer process was recorded using charge coupled device camera and video cassette equipment. Metering behavior of water, a synthetic aqueous protein solution, and anticoagulated human blood was compared. Transfer of these liquids to 2 substrate materials representative of rapidly wettable and slowly wettable dry chemistry slide surface was compared
The Effect of Music Familiarity on Students’ Reading Comprehension Performance
The current study examined 85 university students’ performance in a reading comprehension task under three conditions: silence, familiar, or unfamiliar music. The results indicated that the students in the familiar music condition performed significantly worse than those in the silent conditions, as well as those in the unfamiliar music condition
Technical efficiency of resource conserving technologies in rice wheat system: case of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh in India
Poster prepared for presentation at the conferenceThis study aimed to evaluate the technical efficiency of farmers engaged in rice-wheat cropping systems in India using Resource Conserving Technologies (RCTs) such as zero-tillage and direct seeding, under the intervention of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project primarily funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The goal of the project is to alleviate hunger and malnutrition as well as increase income and food security for poor farmers living in South Asia. The Resource Conserving Technologies (RCTs) are being promoted as part of conservation agriculture supported by the project. These technologies are designed to reduce the strain agricultural production has on two critical natural resources: water and soil. The RCT technologies are being promoted by the CSISA project in several locations in India, and the main ones are direct seeded rice, reduced-tillage, and zero-tillage. The farmers participating in the study are part of the CSISA project and are located in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh and Bihar in Northeastern India. The data used in this study was derived from a socio-economic survey conducted in these two regions during the Kharif season of 2009 and Rabi season of 2010. A Stochastic frontier Analysis, using the Cobb-Douglas or Translog function form, was performed to investigate and compare the determinants of technical efficiency among farmers receiving intervention and those who are not. Farmers receiving intervention from the CSISA project tend to be more technically efficient than those without intervention.Tien Dung Khong, Valerien O. Pede, Zenaida M. Sumalde, Justin D. McKinley, Samarendu Mohant
Hydrogen bonding versus halogen bonding: Spectroscopic investigation of gas-phase complexes involving bromide and chloromethanes
Hydrogen bonding and halogen bonding are important non-covalent interactions that are known to occur in large molecular systems, such as in proteins and crystal structures. Although these interactions are important on a large scale, studying hydrogen and halogen bonding in small, gas-phase chemical species allows for the binding strengths to be determined and compared at a fundamental level. In this study, anion photoelectron spectra are presented for the gas-phase complexes involving bromide and the four chloromethanes, CH3Cl, CH2Cl2, CHCl3, and CCl4. The stabilisation energy and electron binding energy associated with each complex are determined experimentally, and the spectra are rationalised by high-level CCSD(T) calculations to determine the non-covalent interactions binding the complexes. These calculations involve nucleophilic bromide and electrophilic bromine interactions with chloromethanes, where the binding motifs, dissociation energies and vertical detachment energies are compared in terms of hydrogen bonding and halogen bonding
Spectroscopic study of the Br−+CH3I→I−+CH3Br SN2 Reaction
Mass spectrometry and anion photoelectron spectroscopy have been used to study the gas-phase SN2 reaction involving Br- and CH3I. The anion photoelectron spectra associated with the reaction intermediates of this SN2 reaction are presented. High-level CCSD(T) calculations have been utilised to investigate the reaction intermediates that may form as a result of the SN2 reaction along various different reaction pathways, including back-side attack and front-side attack. In addition, simulated vertical detachment energies of each reaction intermediate have been calculated to rationalise the photoelectron spectra
The Family Name as Socio-Cultural Feature and Genetic Metaphor: From Concepts to Methods
A recent workshop entitled The Family Name as Socio-Cultural Feature and Genetic Metaphor: From Concepts to Methods was held in Paris in December 2010, sponsored by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and by the journal Human Biology. This workshop was intended to foster a debate on questions related to the family names and to compare different multidisciplinary approaches involving geneticists, historians, geographers, sociologists and social anthropologists. This collective paper presents a collection of selected communications
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