WALK ON - From Richard Long to Janet Cardiff - 40 years of Art Walking

This is the first exhibition to examine the many and varied ways in which artists since the late 1960s have used what would seem like a universal act – that of taking a walk – as a means to create new types of art. ‘Walk On’ includes photography, film, and installation works, bringing together a diverse group of artists inspired by their travels on foot. It offers an as-yet-unwritten history of a major strand of recent art practice. It argues that from land art and conceptual art, and from street photography to the essay-film, an exceptionally wide range of first-rate artists have created their work from the act of walking, in the city or the land

Generic properties of extensions

Motivated by the classical results by Halmos and Rokhlin on the genericity of weakly but not strongly mixing transformations and the Furstenberg tower construction, we show that weakly but not strongly mixing extensions on a fixed product space with both measures non-atomic are generic. In particular, a generic extension does not have an intermediate nilfactor.Comment: 29 pages; Lemma 7 strengthened and given a new proof; Former Lemma 6 removed; Former Lemma 8 is now Lemma 6, with a slight reformulation; Typos fixe

Accurate ionic forces and geometry optimization in linear-scaling density-functional theory with local orbitals

Linear scaling methods for density-functional theory (DFT) simulations are formulated in terms of localized orbitals in real space, rather than the delocalized eigenstates of conventional approaches. In local-orbital methods, relative to conventional DFT, desirable properties can be lost to some extent, such as the translational invariance of the total energy of a system with respect to small displacements and the smoothness of the potential-energy surface. This has repercussions for calculating accurate ionic forces and geometries. In this work we present results from onetep, our linear scaling method based on localized orbitals in real space. The use of psinc functions for the underlying basis set and on-the-fly optimization of the localized orbitals results in smooth potential-energy surfaces that are consistent with ionic forces calculated using the Hellmann-Feynman theorem. This enables accurate geometry optimization to be performed. Results for surface reconstructions in silicon are presented, along with three example systems demonstrating the performance of a quasi-Newton geometry optimization algorithm: an organic zwitterion, a point defect in an ionic crystal, and a semiconductor nanostructure.<br/

A conceptual model for researching the production and potential tourist consumption of popular media texts

This paper attempts to develop a conceptual model of the process of production and consumption of popular media texts (PMTs) to investigate the relationships between the production elements of PMTs and the ways in which particular production values may appeal to potential tourists in diverse settings. The proposed model presumes that there may be structurally causal relationships between highlighted major elements of PMTs production and patterns of consumption associated with audience involvement, subsequent audience loyalty, and intention to visit the locations depicted in the programming in the context of film-induced tourism. The conceptualised model of the process of production and consumption of PMTs is hypothesised by reviewing previous literature and empirical studies. This paper draws attention to trans-national and interdisciplinary perspectives which will enable researchers to develop new ideas and perspectives in exploring the complicated inter-communication processes between PMTs from the production side with audiences/tourists as consumers, and understanding the relationships and mediation between production and consumption of PMTs and associated tourism

Understanding popular media production and potential tourist consumption: a methodological agenda

Research on the tourism implications of television-induced tourism generally remains limited, with no single agreed approach to its study. In particular, there are methodological difficulties in understanding this phenomenon and a subsequent lack of empirical research into the relationships between films and TV programmes and tourism. Furthermore, there has been limited attention to the underlying mechanisms and structures in the relationships between the production and consumption of films or TV programmes, audiences and potential tourists, particularly in non-Western contexts

Neuronal and psychological underpinnings of pathological gambling

Like in the case of drugs, gambling hijacks reward circuits in a brain which is not prepared to receive such intense stimulation. Dopamine is normally released in response to reward and uncertainty in order to allow animals to stay alive in their environment – where rewards are relatively unpredictable. In this case, behavior is regulated by environmental feedbacks, leading animals to persevere or to give up. In contrast, drugs provide a direct, intense pharmacological stimulation of the dopamine system that operates independently of environmental feedbacks, and hence causes “motivational runaways”. With respect to gambling, the confined environment experienced by gamblers favors the emergence of excitatory conditioned cues, so that positive feedbacks take over negative feedbacks. Although drugs and gambling may act differently, their abnormal activation of reward circuitry generates an underestimation of negative consequences and promotes the development of addictive/compulsive behavior. In Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, dopamine-related therapies may disrupt these feedbacks on dopamine signalling, potentially leading to various addictions, including pathological gambling. The goal of this Research Topic is to further our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the development of pathological gambling. This eBook contains a cross-disciplinary collection of research and review articles, ranging in scope from animal behavioral models to human imaging studies

The Sound of Silence? : a comparative study of the barriers to communication skills development in accounting and engineering students

Employers often consider graduates to be unprepared for employment and lacking in vocational skills. A common demand from them is that the curriculum should include ‘communication skills’, as specific skills in their own right and also because of the central role that such skills can play in developing other desirable attributes. Current thinking in communication has indicated a split between communication apprehension and communication development. There are indications that techniques designed to develop communication skills will not resolve communication apprehension and that, if an individual has a high level of communication apprehension, these techniques will not result in improved communication performance. This paper compares and contrasts the levels and profiles of communication apprehension exhibited by accounting and engineering students. The implications of the findings are then discussed and the need for further research in the area of vocational choice is identified

The role of informal learning spaces in enhancing student engagement with mathematical sciences

By helping create a shared, supportive, learning community, the creative use of custom-designed spaces outside the classroom has a major impact on student engagement. The intention is to create spaces that promote peer interaction within and across year groups, encourage closer working relationships between staff and students and support specific coursework activities – particularly group work. Such spaces make better use of time since students are motivated to stay and work during long gaps in their timetable, can provide a sense of ‘home’ within the institution and can lead to a cohesive community of practice. In this paper, we describe how this has been achieved and currently delivered in Mathematics at Sheffield Hallam University and provide some detailed analysis of the student usage of the space