4,584 research outputs found
Making academia more accessible
Academia can be a challenging place to work and academics who have a disability, neurodiversity or chronic illness are further disadvantaged, as non-stereotypical ways of working are not necessarily supported or catered for. The remit of this paper is to provide practical ideas and recommendations to address accessibility issues in events and conferences as a first step to improving existing working conditions. We start with providing a brief overview of and background to the issues of ableism, disabilities, chronic illnesses and neurodiversities in academia. We then offer a detailed description of the organisational and developmental strategies relating to the Ableism in Academia conference to practically demonstrate how accessibility can be achieved. Despite vast literature available on theorisations of reasonable adjustments and some individual handbooks on conference accessibility, noted the absence of a systematic write-up of a case study that would demonstrate the thought processes required for the organisation of a fully accessible and inclusive event. This paper provides almost a step-by-step rationale and rundown of the decisions that had to be taken in order to facilitate an accessible event. After a brief consideration of challenges we encountered along the way, we share personal reflections regarding the event and future developments
Embodied reflection â exploring creative routes to teaching reflective practice within dance training
This article draws from a collaboration between Rambert School of Dance, University of Kent, University College London Institute of Education and an anthropological filmmaker. Together we took a creative and embodied approach to teaching reflective practice within a conservatoire to second-year dance students. In this article, we explore where this somatically inspired pedagogy sits within dance training. We discuss the nature of reflection for dance training, and in particular consider embodied reflective practice. Finally we offer effective methodologies for drawing out and capturing embodied practice
Fronto-striatal cognitive deficits at different stages of Parkinson's disease
Groups of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease, either medicated or unmedicated, were compared with matched groups of normal controls on a computerized battery previously shown to be sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction, including tests of planning, spatial working memory and attentional set-shifting. In a series of problems based on the 'Tower of London' test, medicated patients with Parkinson's disease were shown to be impaired in the amount of time spent thinking about (planning) the solution to each problem. Additionally, an impairment in terms of the accuracy of the solution produced on this test was only evident in those patients with more severe clinical symptoms and was accompanied by deficits in an associated test of spatial short-term memory. Medicated patients with both mild and severe clinical symptoms were also impaired on a related test of spatial working memory. In contrast, a group of patients who were unmedicated and 'early in the course' of the disease were unimpaired in all three of these tests. However, all three Parkinson's disease groups were impaired in the test of attentional set-shifting ability, although unimpaired in a test of pattern recognition which is insensitive to frontal lobe damage. These data are compared with those previously published from a group of young neurosurgical patients with localized excisions of the frontal lobes and are discussed in terms of the specific nature of the cognitive deficit at different stages of Parkinson's disease
Embodied Reflection: Exploring somatic narratives within dance training
This article draws from a collaboration between Rambert School of Dance, University of Kent, University College London Institute of Education and an anthropological filmmaker. Together we took a creative and embodied approach to teaching reflective practice within a conservatoire to second-year dance students. In this article, we explore where this somatically inspired pedagogy sits within dance training. We discuss the nature of reflection for dance training, and in particular consider embodied reflective practice. Finally we offer effective methodologies for drawing out and capturing embodied practice
Another Leigh-Strassler deformation through the Matrix model
In here the matrix model approach, by Dijkgraaf and Vafa, is used in order to
obtain the effective superpotential for a certain deformation of N=4 SYM
discovered by Leigh and Strassler. An exact solution to the matrix model
Lagrangian is found and is expressed in terms of elliptic functions.Comment: 15 pages,2 figure
On the Z_2 Monopole of Spin(10) Gauge Theories
An "expanded" description is introduced to examine the spinor-monopole
identification proposed by Strassler for four-dimensional = 1
supersymmetric Spin(10) gauge theories with matter in F vector and N spinor
representations. It is shown that a Z_2 monopole in the "expanded" theory is
associated with massive spinors of the Spin(10) theory. For N=2, two spinor
case, we confirm this identification by matching the transformation properties
of the two theories under SU(2) flavor symmetry. However, for N 3, the
transformation properties are not matched between the spinors and the monopole.
This disagreement might be due to the fact that the SU(N) flavor symmetry of
the Spin(10) theory is partially realized as an SU(2) symmetry in the
"expanded" theory.Comment: 16 pages, LaTex, no figur
More on Chiral-Nonchiral Dual Pairs
Expanding upon earlier work of Pouliot and Strassler, we construct chiral
magnetic duals to nonchiral supersymmetric electric theories based upon SO(7),
SO(8) and SO(9) gauge groups with various numbers of vector and spinor matter
superfields. Anomalies are matched and gauge invariant operators are mapped
within each dual pair. Renormalization group flows along flat directions are
also examined. We find that confining phase quantum constraints in the electric
theories are recovered from semiclassical equations of motion in their magnetic
counterparts when the dual gauge groups are completely Higgsed.Comment: 25 pages, harvmac and tables macros, 1 figur
Massive higher spins and holography
We review recent progress towards the understanding of higher spin gauge
symmetry breaking in AdS space from a holographic vantage point. According to
the AdS/CFT correspondence, N=4 SYM theory at vanishing coupling constant
should be dual to a theory in AdS which exhibits higher spin gauge symmetry
enhancement. When the SYM coupling is non-zero, all but a handful of HS
currents are violated by anomalies, and correspondingly local higher spin
symmetry in the bulk gets spontaneously broken. In agreement with previous
results and holographic expectations, we find that, barring one notable
exception (spin 1 eating spin 0), the Goldstone modes responsible for HS
symmetry breaking in AdS have non-vanishing mass even in the limit in which the
gauge symmetry is restored. We show that spontaneous breaking a' la
Stueckelberg implies that the mass of the relevant spin s'=s-1 Goldstone field
is exactly the one predicted by the correspondence.Comment: 8 pages, talk presented by M.B. at the "Fourth Meeting on Constrained
Dynamics and Quantum gravity" held in Cala Gonone (Sardinia, Italy),
September 12-16, 200
Exact Superpotentials in Four Dimensions
Supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions can display interesting
non-perturbative phenomena. Although the superpotential dynamically generated
by these phenomena can be highly nontrivial, it can often be exactly
determined. We discuss some general techniques for analyzing the Wilsonian
superpotential and demonstrate them with simple but non-trivial examples.Comment: 32 pages, RU-94-2
Dual Descriptions of SO(10) SUSY Gauge Theories with Arbitrary Numbers of Spinors and Vectors
We examine the low energy structure of N=1 supersymmetric SO(10) gauge theory
with matter chiral superfields in N_Q spinor and N_f vector representations. We
construct a dual to this model based upon an SU(N_f+2N_Q-7) x Sp(2N_Q-2) gauge
group without utilizing deconfinement methods. This product theory generalizes
all previously known Pouliot-type duals to SO(N_c) models with spinor and
vector matter. It also yields large numbers of new dual pairs along various
flat directions. The dual description of the SO(10) theory satisfies multiple
consistency checks including an intricate renormalization group flow analysis
which links it with Seiberg's duality transformations. We discuss its
implications for building grand unified theories that contain all Standard
Model fields as composite degrees of freedom.Comment: 36 pages, harvmac and tables macros, 1 figur
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