646 research outputs found
Mapping musical mobilities: challenging musical nationalism through mobility and migration
Often, musicâparticularly classical musicâhas been viewed in some quarters as a product of particular national cultures, with little regard paid to the ways in which mobile phenomena can contribute to its production, whether in the form of mobile people, objects, or concepts. This paper turns to notions of mobility as a means of exploring how musical cultures can be animated. It explores, too, the possibilities of particular forms of âmappingâ as a way to retain, but also rethink, the spatial specificity so emphatically signalled in some musical tradition-claiming, while simultaneously avoiding the excessive valorisation of mobility that can characterise many musical careers as endlessly nomadic or socially detached. We begin by discussing the question of music and nationalism in more detail, particularly as it has been conceived of within musicology, ethnomusicology, and nationalism studies. In so doing, we aim to establish a sense of the national framing and fixing through which (classical) music has hitherto been understood in some contexts. This leads naturally onto an attendant discussion of the mobility of music, in which we will outline some of the nascent material on this topic
Argumentation in school science : Breaking the tradition of authoritative exposition through a pedagogy that promotes discussion and reasoning
The value of argumentation in science education has become internationally recognised and has been the subject of many research studies in recent years. Successful introduction of argumentation activities in learning contexts involves extending teaching goals beyond the understanding of facts and concepts, to include an emphasis on cognitive and metacognitive processes, epistemic criteria and reasoning. The authors focus on the difficulties inherent in shifting a tradition of teaching from one dominated by authoritative exposition to one that is more dialogic, involving small-group discussion based on tasks that stimulate argumentation. The paper builds on previous research on enhancing the quality of argument in school science, to focus on how argumentation activities have been designed, with appropriate strategies, resources and modelling, for pedagogical purposes. The paper analyses design frameworks, their contexts and lesson plans, to evaluate their potential for enhancing reasoning through foregrounding the processes of argumentation. Examples of classroom dialogue where teachers adopt the frameworks/plans are analysed to show how argumentation processes are scaffolded. The analysis shows that several layers of interpretation are needed and these layers need to be aligned for successful implementation. The analysis serves to highlight the potential and limitations of the design frameworks
Structure and evolution of the human IKBA gene
IÎșBα belongs to a gene family whose members are characterized by their 6-7 Ankyrin repeats, which allow them to interact with members of the Rel family of transcription factors. We have sequenced a human IÎșBα genomic clone to determine its gene structure. The human IÎșBα gene (IKBA) has six exons and five introns that span approximately 3.5 kb. This genomic organization is similar to that of other members of the Ankyrin gene family. The humanIKBAgene shares similar intron/exon boundaries with the humanBCL3andNFKB2genes, which is consistent with their conserved Ankyrin repeats. To examine further the evolutionary relationship between human IÎșBα and other members of its gene family, we performed a phylogenetic analysis. Although the resulting phylogenetic tree does not identify a common ancestor of the IÎșBα gene family, it indicates that this family diverges into two groups based on structure and function
New mobilities across the lifecourse: A framework for analysing demographically-linked drivers of migration
Date of acceptance: 17/02/2015Taking the life course as the central concern, the authors set out a conceptual framework and define some key research questions for a programme of research that explores how the linked lives of mobile people are situated in timeâspace within the economic, social, and cultural structures of contemporary society. Drawing on methodologically innovative techniques, these perspectives can offer new insights into the changing nature and meanings of migration across the life course.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Dynamic optimal taxation with human capital.
This paper revisits the dynamic optimal taxation results of Jones, Manuelli, and Rossi (1993, 1997). They use a growth model with human capital and find that optimal taxes on both capital income and labor income converge to zero in steady state. For one of the models under consideration, I show that the representative household's problem does not have an interior solution. This raises concerns since these corners are inconsistent with aggregate data. Interiority is restored if preferences are modified so that human capital augments the value of leisure time. With this change, the optimal tax problem is analyzed and, reassuringly, the Jones, Manuelli, and Rossi results are confirmed: neither capital income nor labor income should be taxed in steady state
Molecular gyroscopes and biological effects of weak ELF magnetic fields
Extremely-low-frequency magnetic fields are known to affect biological
systems. In many cases, biological effects display `windows' in biologically
effective parameters of the magnetic fields: most dramatic is the fact that
relatively intense magnetic fields sometimes do not cause appreciable effect,
while smaller fields of the order of 10--100 T do. Linear resonant
physical processes do not explain frequency windows in this case. Amplitude
window phenomena suggest a nonlinear physical mechanism. Such a nonlinear
mechanism has been proposed recently to explain those `windows'. It considers
quantum-interference effects on protein-bound substrate ions. Magnetic fields
cause an interference of ion quantum states and change the probability of
ion-protein dissociation. This ion-interference mechanism predicts specific
magnetic-field frequency and amplitude windows within which biological effects
occur. It agrees with a lot of experiments. However, according to the
mechanism, the lifetime of ion quantum states within a protein
cavity should be of unrealistic value, more than 0.01 s for frequency band
10--100 Hz. In this paper, a biophysical mechanism has been proposed that (i)
retains the attractive features of the ion interference mechanism and (ii) uses
the principles of gyroscopic motion and removes the necessity to postulate
large lifetimes. The mechanism considers dynamics of the density matrix of the
molecular groups, which are attached to the walls of protein cavities by two
covalent bonds, i.e., molecular gyroscopes. Numerical computations have shown
almost free rotations of the molecular gyros. The relaxation time due to van
der Waals forces was about 0.01 s for the cavity size of 28 angstr\"{o}ms.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Trapped in the prison of the mind: notions of climate-induced (im)mobility decision-making and wellbeing from an urban informal settlement in Bangladesh
The concept of Trapped Populations has until date mainly referred to people âtrappedâ in environmentally high-risk rural areas due to economic constraints. This article attempts to widen our understanding of the concept by investigating climate-induced socio-psychological immobility and its link to Internally Displaced Peopleâs (IDPs) wellbeing in a slum of Dhaka. People migrated here due to environmental changes back on Bhola Island and named the settlement Bhola Slum after their home. In this way, many found themselves âimmobileâ after having been mobileâunable to move back home, and unable to move to other parts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, or beyond. The analysis incorporates the emotional and psychosocial aspects of the diverse immobility states. Mind and emotion are vital to better understand peopleâs (im)mobility decision-making and wellbeing status. The study applies an innovative and interdisciplinary methodological approach combining Q-methodology and discourse analysis (DA). This mixed-method illustrates a replicable approach to capture the complex state of climate-induced (im)mobility and its interlinkages to peopleâs wellbeing. People reported facing non-economic losses due to the move, such as identity, honour, sense of belonging and mental health. These psychosocial processes helped explain why some people ended up âtrappedâ or immobile. The psychosocial constraints paralysed them mentally, as well as geographically. More empirical evidence on how climate change influences peopleâs wellbeing and mental health will be important to provide us with insights in how to best support vulnerable people having faced climatic impacts, and build more sustainable climate policy frameworks
Establishing temperate crustose early Holocene coralline algae as archives for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the shallow water habitats of the Mediterranean Sea
Over the past decades, coralline algae have increasingly been used as archives of palaeoclimate information due to their seasonal growth bands and their vast distribution from high latitudes to the tropics. Traditionally, these reconstructions have been performed mainly on high latitude species, limiting the geographical area of their potential use. Here we assess the use of temperate crustose fossil coralline algae from shallow water habitats for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction to generate records of past climate change. We determine the potential of three different species of coralline algae, Lithothamnion minervae, Lithophyllum stictaeforme and Mesophyllum philippii, with different growth patterns, as archives for pH (ÎŽ11B) and temperature (Mg/Ca) reconstruction in the Mediterranean Sea. Mg concentration is driven by temperature but modulated by growth rate, which is controlled by speciesâspecific and intraspecific growth patterns. L. minervae is a good temperature recorder, showing a moderate warming trend in specimens from 11.37 cal ka BP (from 14.2 ± 0.4°C to 14.9 ± 0.15°C) to today. In contrast to Mg, all genera showed consistent values of boron isotopes (ÎŽ11B) suggesting a common control on boron incorporation. The recorded ÎŽ11B in modern and fossil coralline specimens is in agreement with literature data about early Holocene pH, opening new perspectives of corallineâbased, highâresolution pH reconstructions in deep time
Age and sexârelated variability in the presentation of generalized anxiety and depression symptoms
Background: Generalized anxiety and depression are extremely prevalent and debilitating. There is evidence for age and sex variability in symptoms of depression, but despite comorbidity it is unclear whether this extends to anxiety symptomatology. Studies using questionnaire sum scores typically fail to address this phenotypic complexity. Method: We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GADâ7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQâ9) items to identify latent factors of anxiety and depression in participants from the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression Study (N = 35,637; 16â93 years). We assessed ageâ and sexârelated variability in latent factors and individual symptoms using multiple logistic regression. Results: Four factors of mood, worry, motor, and somatic symptoms were identified (comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.99, TuckerâLewis Index [TLI] = 0.99, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.07, standardized root mean square residuals [SRMR] = 0.04). Symptoms of irritability (odds ratio [OR] = 0.81) were most strongly associated with younger age, and sleep change (OR = 1.14) with older age. Males were more likely to report mood and motor symptoms (p < .001) and females to report somatic symptoms (p < .001). Conclusion: Significant age and sex variability suggest that classic diagnostic criteria reflect the presentation most commonly seen in younger males. This study provides avenues for diagnostic adaptation and factorâspecific interventions
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