4,696 research outputs found
Engaging without over-powering: A case study of a FLOSS project
This is the post-print version of the published chapter. The original publication is available at the link below. Copyright @ 2010 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.The role of Open Source Software (OSS) in the e-learning business has become more and more fundamental in the last 10 years, as long as corporate and government organizations have developed their educational and training programs based on OSS out-of-the-box tools. This paper qualitatively documents the decision of the largest UK e-learning provider, the Open University, to adopt the Moodle e-learning system, and how it has been successfully deployed in its site after a multi-million investment. A further quantitative study also provides evidence of how a commercial stakeholder has been engaged with, and produced outputs for, the Moodle community. Lessons learned from this experience by the stakeholders include the crucial factors of contributing to the OSS community, and adapting to an evolving technology. It also becomes evident how commercial partners helped this OSS system to achieve the transition from an âaverageâ OSS system to a successful multi-site, collaborative and community-based OSS project
Interactional formats and institutional context: a practical and exploitable distinction in interviews
This paper applies practically oriented discourse analysis to focus
group interviews using conversation analytic principles to show how interactional
qualities demonstrably different to analysts are also treated as such by
participants.
We take a grounded practical theory perspective to claim that the
empirical and practical distinction is an exploitable resource for participants,
with important implications for the goals of research interviewing, interviewee
participation in focus groups, and analyses thereof. We identify participant techniques
for doing and attending to conversational and institutional interaction
formats, including turn-taking organization, embodied acts, addressivity, and
emotion displays, and how those techniques allow participants to co-construct
emergent stances alongside answering questions
Covariant N=2 heterotic string in four dimensions
We construct a covariant formulation of the heterotic superstring on K3 times
T^2 with manifest N=2 supersymmetry. We show how projective superspace appears
naturally in the hybrid formulation giving a (partially) geometric
interpretation of the harmonic parameter. The low-energy effective action for
this theory is given by a non-standard form of N=2 supergravity which is
intimately related to the N=1 old-minimal formulation. This formalism can be
used to derive new descriptions of interacting projective superspace field
theories using Berkovits' open string field theory and the the heterotic
Berkovits-Okawa-Zwiebach construction.Comment: 11+3 page
A case study of the Neti Potâs rise, americanization, and rupture as integrative medicine in U.S. media discourse
In a period of only one decade in the United States, the neti pot shifted from obscure Ayurvedic health device to mainstream complementary and integrative medicine (CIM), touted by celebrities and sold widely in drug stores. We examine the neti pot as a case study for understanding how a foreign health practice became mainstreamed, and what that process reveals about more general discourses of health in the United States. Using discourse analysis of U.S. popular press and new media news (1999â2012) about the neti pot, we trace the development of discourses from netiâs first introduction in mainstream news, through the hype following Dr. Ozâs presentation on Oprah, to 2011 when two adults tragically died after using Naegleria fowleri amoeba-infested tap water in their neti pots. Neti pot discourses are an important site for communicative analysis because of the potâs complexity as an intercultural artifact: Neti pots and their use are enfolded into the biomedical practice of nasal irrigation and simultaneously Orientalized as exotic/magical and suspect/dangerous. This dual positioning as normal and exotic creates inequitable access for using the neti pot as a resource for increasing cultural health capital (CHC). This article contributes to work that critically theorizes the transnationalism of CIM, as the neti pot became successfully Americanized. These results have implications for understanding global health practicesâ incorporation or co-optation in new contexts, and the important role that popularly mediated health communication can play in framing what health care products and practices mean for consumers
Tratado de derecho polĂtico segĂșn los principios de la filosofĂa y el derecho cristianos
Copia digital : Junta de Castilla y LeĂłn. ConsejerĂa de Cultura y Turismo, 201
The hydrological regime of a forested tropical Andean catchment.
The hydrology of tropical mountain catchments plays a central role in ecological function, geochemical and biogeochemical cycles, erosion and sediment production, and water supply in globally important environments. There have been few studies quantifying the seasonal and annual water budgets in the montane tropics, particularly in cloud forests. We investigated the water balance and hydrologic regime of the Kosñipata catchment (basin area: 164.4 km2) over the period 2010â2011. The catchment spans over 2500 m in elevation in the eastern Peruvian Andes and is dominated by tropical montane cloud forest with some high-elevation puna grasslands. Catchment-wide rainfall was 3112 ± 414 mm yrâ1, calculated by calibrating Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B43 rainfall with rainfall data from nine meteorological stations in the catchment. Cloud water input to streamflow was 316 ± 116 mm yrâ1 (9.2% of total inputs), calculated from an isotopic mixing model using deuterium excess (Dxs) and ÎŽD of waters. Field streamflow was measured in 2010 by recording height and calibrating to discharge. River run-off was estimated to be 2796 ± 126 mm yrâ1. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) was 688 ± 138 mm yrâ1, determined using the Priestley and TaylorâJet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL) model. The overall water budget was balanced within 1.6 ± 13.7%. Relationships between monthly rainfall and river run-off follow an anticlockwise hysteresis through the year, with a persistence of high run-off after the end of the wet season. The size of the soil and shallow groundwater reservoir is most likely insufficient to explain sustained dry-season flow. Thus, the observed hysteresis in rainfallârun-off relationships is best explained by sustained groundwater flow in the dry season, which is consistent with the water isotope results that suggest persistent wet-season sources to streamflow throughout the year. These results demonstrate the importance of transient groundwater storage in stabilising the annual hydrograph in this region of the Andes
Overview of experimental results in PbPb collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 2.76 TeV by the CMS Collaboration
The CMS experiment at the LHC is a general-purpose apparatus with a set of
large acceptance and high granularity detectors for hadrons, electrons, photons
and muons, providing unique capabilities for both proton-proton and ion-ion
collisions. The data collected during the November 2010 PbPb run at sqrt{s_NN}
= 2.76 TeV was analyzed and multiple measurements of the properties of the hot
and dense matter were obtained. Global event properties, detailed study of jet
production and jet properties, isolated photons, quarkonia and weak bosons were
measured and compared to pp data and Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, proceedings for Quark Matter 2011, Annecy,
France, May 23-28, 201
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