Accounting for care within human geography

Human geography has experienced a burgeoning interest in care. Despite this, the more radical potentials of thinking with, and through, care remain largely unex- plored. In this paper, we critically examine one such potential, asking how care might facilitate a substantial rethinking of practices of research and analysis within human geography. We argue that care does not simply name practices of social reproduction or emotional attachment, but is a distinct mode of ethics, both visible in the social world and capable of infor ming academic practice. We ask what it means to recognise everyday accounts as acts of care, and to analyse these same accounts through an ethic of care where knowledge, action, relating to others, and the shaping of ethical commitment are inextricably intertwined. While, typically, everyday accounts are seen as about some sort of underlying meaning or dynamic, we suggest that such accounts need to be understood as parts of efforts to navigate and remake social worlds. We unfold our argument by first tracing how care has been understood and analysed within human geography as a shifting and situated social practice. Building on, but moving beyond, such approaches, we examine social worlds as “matters of care,” where everyday understandings and the potential for action and ethical commitment are not only continually negotiated but are also staunchly kept open to new possibilities. Through the close reading of extracts from indepth interviews with firsttime par- ents in the city of Oxford, UK, we illustrate how care offers a committed practice of knowing and relating within research. We argue this approach provides new ways of thinking about geographical research, where primary research, analysis, and scholarly narratives are all implicated in the remaking of everyday worlds that, in turn, reveal a new terrain of political potentiality. Drawing on in-depth interviews with first-time parents in the city of Oxford, we offer a critical examination of how notions of care can transform practices of research and analysis within human geography. We argue care offers a committed practice of knowing and relating within research where data collection, analysis, and scholarly narratives are all implicated in the remaking of everyday worlds that, in turn, reveal a new terrain of political potentiality

A Feature-Augmented Grammar for Automated Media Production

The IST Polymnia project is creating a fully automated system for personalised video generation, including content creation, selection and composition. This paper presents a linguistically motivated solution using context-free feature-augmented grammar rules to describe editing tasks and hence automate video editing. The solution is media and application independent

Return Periods of Extreme Sea Levels: The Exceedance Probability Method

Practical application of the Exceedance Probability Method of Middleton and Thompson (J. Geophys. Res., V ol.91, 1986, pp. 11707-11716) to the estimation of extreme sea levels is considered in detail, for ports where tidal amplitudes dominate surge. Data from Sydney (Australia) are used to illustrate the method. Direct use of the histogram of tidal residuals, instead of fitting a model to it, is discussed, and the limitations are pointed out. Graphical fitting of the sum of two normal distributions to the histogram is also discussed. A method is given for including a trend in mean sea level. A simplified method of checking if tidal amplitudes dominate the surge is given in an appendix

Bonding machine for forming a solar array strip

A machine is described for attaching solar cells to a flexable substrate on which printed circuitry has been deposited. The strip is fed through: (1) a station in which solar cells are elevated into engagement with solder pads for the printed circuitry and thereafter heated by an infrared lamp; (2) a station at which flux and solder residue is removed; (3) a station at which electrical performance of the soldered cells is determined; (4) a station at which an encapsulating resin is deposited on the cells; (5) a station at which the encapsulated solar cells are examined for electrical performance; and (6) a final station at which the resulting array is wound on a takeup drum

Spin and link overlaps in 3-dimensional spin glasses

Excitations of three-dimensional spin glasses are computed numerically. We find that one can flip a finite fraction of an LxLxL lattice with an O(1) energy cost, confirming the mean field picture of a non-trivial spin overlap distribution P(q). These low energy excitations are not domain-wall-like, rather they are topologically non-trivial and they reach out to the boundaries of the lattice. Their surface to volume ratios decrease as L increases and may asymptotically go to zero. If so, link and window overlaps between the ground state and these excited states become ``trivial''.Comment: Extra fits comparing TNT to mean field, summarized in a tabl

Energetics and geometry of excitations in random systems

Methods for studying droplets in models with quenched disorder are critically examined. Low energy excitations in two dimensional models are investigated by finding minimal energy interior excitations and by computing the effect of bulk perturbations. The numerical data support the assumptions of compact droplets and a single exponent for droplet energy scaling. Analytic calculations show how strong corrections to power laws can result when samples and droplets are averaged over. Such corrections can explain apparent discrepancies in several previous numerical results for spin glasses.Comment: 4 pages, eps files include

Resonant steps and spatiotemporal dynamics in the damped dc-driven Frenkel-Kontorova chain

Kink dynamics of the damped Frenkel-Kontorova (discrete sine-Gordon) chain driven by a constant external force are investigated. Resonant steplike transitions of the average velocity occur due to the competitions between the moving kinks and their radiated phasonlike modes. A mean-field consideration is introduced to give a precise prediction of the resonant steps. Slip-stick motion and spatiotemporal dynamics on those resonant steps are discussed. Our results can be applied to studies of the fluxon dynamics of 1D Josephson-junction arrays and ladders, dislocations, tribology and other fields.Comment: 20 Plain Latex pages, 10 Eps figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

A cross‐faculty simulation model for authentic learning

This paper proposes a cross‐faculty simulation model for authentic learning that bridges the gap between short group‐based simulations within the classroom and longer individual placements in professional working contexts. Dissemination of the model is expected to widen the use of authentic learning approaches in higher education (HE). The model is based on a cross‐faculty project in which UK HE students acted as professional developers to produce prototype educational games for academic clients from other subject areas. Perceptions about the project were obtained from interviews with project participants. The stakeholders believed the cross‐faculty simulation to be a motivating learning experience, whilst identifying possible improvements. To evaluate whether the authenticity of the student–client relationship could be improved, the interview data were compared to four themes for authentic learning described by Rule in 2006. The data supported Rule’s themes, whilst highlighting the added value gained from meta‐awareness of the simulation as a learning opportunity