Centrifuge Modeling for Dynamic Geotechnical Studies

The field of dynamic centrifuge modelling has developed rapidly over the past decade, with international interest in both earthquake and blast modelling. The paper discusses the proliferation of facilities and the insight that can be gained from the interpretation of dynamic model test data now available using hand calculations and advanced techniques of digital signal processing

Pathways to economic well-being among teenage mothers in Great Britain

The present study examines pathways to independence from social welfare among 738 teenage mothers, participants of the 1970 British Cohort Study, who were followed up at age 30 years. Using a longitudinal design, a pathway model is tested, examining linkages between family social background, cognitive ability, school motivation, and individual investments in education, as well as work- and family-related roles. The most important factors associated with financial independence by age 30 are continued attachment to the labor market as well as a stable relationship with a partner (not necessarily the father of the child). Pathways to financial independence, in turn, are predicted through own cognitive resources, school motivation, and family cohesion. Implications of findings for policy making are discussed.© 2010 Hogrefe Publishing

‘Stick that knife in me’: Shane Meadows’ children

This article brings Shane Meadows’ Dead Man's Shoes (2004) into dialogue with the history of the depiction of the child on film. Exploring Meadows’ work for its complex investment in the figure of the child on screen, it traces the limits of the liberal ideology of the child in his cinema and the structures of feeling mobilised by its uses – at once aesthetic and sociological – of technologies of vision

Academic self-concept, gender and single-sex schooling

This paper assesses gender differences in academic self-concept for a cohort of children born in 1958 (the National Child Development Study). We address the question of whether attending single-sex or co-educational schools affected students’ perceptions of their own academic abilities (academic self-concept). Academic selfconcept was found to be highly gendered, even controlling for prior test scores. Boys had higher self-concepts in maths and science, and girls in English. Single-sex schooling reduced the gender gap in self-concept, while selective schooling was linked to lower academic self-concept overall

Approaching public perceptions of datafication through the lens of inequality: a case study in public service media

In the emerging field of critical data studies, there is increasing acknowledgement that the negative effects of datafication are not experienced equally by all. Research on data and discrimination in particular has highlighted how already socially unequal populations are discriminated against in data-driven systems. Elsewhere, there is growing interest in public perceptions of datafication, amongst academic researchers interested in producing ‘bottom up’ understandings of the new roles of data in society and non-academic stakeholders keen to establish positive perceptions of data-driven systems. However, research into public perceptions rarely engages with the issue of inequality which is so central in data and discrimination scholarship. Bringing these two issues together, this paper explores public perceptions of datafication through the lens of inequality, focusing on the relationship between understandings and feelings within these perceptions. The paper draws on empirical focus group research into how audiences perceive the data practices that signing in to access BBC digital services enable. The paper shows how inequalities relating to age, dis/ability, poverty and their intersections played a role in shaping perceptions and that these social inequalities informed understandings of and feelings about data practices in complex and diverse ways. It concludes with reflections on the significance of these findings for future research and for data-related policy

Spring School on Language, Music, and Cognition: Organizing Events in Time

The interdisciplinary spring school “Language, music, and cognition: Organizing events in time” was held from February 26 to March 2, 2018 at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Cologne. Language, speech, and music as events in time were explored from different perspectives including evolutionary biology, social cognition, developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience of speech, language, and communication, as well as computational and biological approaches to language and music. There were 10 lectures, 4 workshops, and 1 student poster session. Overall, the spring school investigated language and music as neurocognitive systems and focused on a mechanistic approach exploring the neural substrates underlying musical, linguistic, social, and emotional processes and behaviors. In particular, researchers approached questions concerning cognitive processes, computational procedures, and neural mechanisms underlying the temporal organization of language and music, mainly from two perspectives: one was concerned with syntax or structural representations of language and music as neurocognitive systems (i.e., an intrapersonal perspective), while the other emphasized social interaction and emotions in their communicative function (i.e., an interpersonal perspective). The spring school not only acted as a platform for knowledge transfer and exchange but also generated a number of important research questions as challenges for future investigations