The Cremona group is compactly presentable

This article shows that the Cremona group is compactly presentable. To prove this we show that it is a generalised amalgamated product of three of its algebraic subgroups (automorphisms of the plane and Hirzebruch surfaces) divided by one relation

Affordances of Historic Urban Landscapes: an Ecological Understanding of Human Interaction with the Past

Heritage has been defined differently in European contexts. Despite differences, a common challenge for historic urban landscape management is the integration of tangible and intangible heritage. Integration demands an active view of perception and human-landscape interaction where intangible values are linked to specific places and meanings are attached to particular cultural practices and socio-spatial organisation. Tangible and intangible values can be examined as part of a system of affordances (potentialities) a place, artefact or cultural practice has to offer. This paper discusses how an ‘affordance analysis’ may serve as a useful tool for the management of historic urban landscapes

Proud to be a Goan: colonial memories, post-colonial identities and music

During 451 years of colonial history, catholic Goans used music as a mediator of identity negotiation. In a political context repressing musical sonority of Indian flavour, in which Portuguese was the official language, catholic Goans created their own music, sung in Konkani and performed according to Portuguese models. Mandó among other hybrid and ambivalent musical genres, comprehen- sible for colonial rulers and Goans but with different significance for both, acquired an emblematic status. After 1961 Goa becomes an Indian territory, and the Goan diaspora, into Europe, America and Africa, increased. With it, the homeland myth created the ne- cessity to isolate some cultural ingredients in order to maintain their cultural ties within an alien territory. Musical genres de- veloped in Goa were recreated not for their colonial memory but because they allowed Goans to prove their difference. This paper tries to inscribe Goans as a paradigmatic case of diasporic com- munities where music acquires central status in the process of post-colonial identification and as an instrument of conciliation.FCTFundação Orient

Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS) of Undergraduate Nursing Students - A Generational Perspective

A change in the generational demographics of college students is occurring throughout the United States. By 2012, the number of Millennial students, those born from 1982 to 2003, will jump from 44 percent to 75 percent of the total college enrollment. It has been suggested that their methods of learning are different from those of previous generations. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare individual productivity and learning style preferences of undergraduate nursing students that fall into the Generation X and Millennial age cohort. Using the Dunn & Dunn Learning Style Model and the Productivity Environmental Preferences Survey(PEPS), the study examined the conditions under which an adult learner is most likely to achieve the highest level of productivity and learning. Seventy-three undergraduate nursing students in their junior year of college were surveyed on twenty different stimuli subscales. Overall results did not demonstrate strong learning style preferences in either group and demonstrated more similarities than differences. Four areas of slightly stronger preferences were noted: Generation X preference for learning from authority figures verses peer learning and the need for frequent snacking for increased productivity and learning. Millennia} students demonstrated a greater preference for wanting a more structured learning environment and having afternoon and evenings as the time of their highest level of energy for learning more difficult content. Using at-test and 2-tailed significance analysis showed a statistical significant difference between the generational cohorts in the subscales referring to Authority oriented learner , Time of day and Afternoon . Understanding the academic productivity and preferred learning style preferences of these two groups is important for both curriculum planning and policies to help increase student retention

The Y(4260)Y(4260) and Y(4360)Y(4360) enhancements within coupled-channels

Puzzling structures have been observed in the charmonium energy region, namely the $Y(4260)$ and the $Y(4360)$, that cannot be easily accommodated within quark model frameworks. The proximity of nearby dominant hadronic thresholds suggests that they play an important role in the formation of the enhancements. We present results of an unitarized effective Lagrangian model, where mesonic loops, equivalent to coupled-channels, and charmonium vectors $\psi$ interplay to generate line-shapes and poles.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Conference proceedings at 15th International Workshop on Meson Physics, Krakow, Poland, 7th-12th June 201

Quality Management and Innovation in Information Services - The case study of the Documentation Services of the University of Minho

[The present paper is based on a curricular traineeship, part of the Degree in Information Science, under the theme of the implementation of Quality Management Systems, occurred at the Documentation Services of the University of Minho (SDUM).] The SDUM have their main purpose in providing the best resources, services and easy access to all the community of the University of Minho (formed by students of several areas, teachers, collaborators and investigators). In order to fullfil the users’ needs, it was essential for SDUM to grow and mature as an organization. The main objective of this paper is to give a general vision of all the work executed at SDUM, emphasizing this project, pioneer in Portugal: the implementation of Quality Management Systems, based on ISO 9001:2000 and Balanced Scorecard, in order to obtain the services’ certification. Between the amount of steps needed for a complex process as this one is, it is important to have the perception that Libraries are now dealing with a new “generation” of users and it’s important, not only to understand their needs, but knowing how to satisfy them and supplant what their expecting. The Quality, allied, most of the times, to Innovation, is a new opportunity to change what is not working the way it was supposed to but, more important than that, to involve and motivate all the collaborators, making them feel as a real team. And it will surely reflect in the services rendered to the users. From mapping processes, to documental management, passing through the Quality Manual, Benchmarking and the issues related to the human side of this question, the present paper aims to be an example of what is Quality applied to this area and also encourag

Line-shape analysis of charmonium resonances

We discuss weather the new enhancements found by BES, alias the $Y(4220)$, $Y(4260)$, $Y(4360)$, and $Y(4390)$ are true resonances. We argue that the nearby thresholds $D_s^*\bar{D}_s^*$, $D\bar{D}_1+\bar{D}D_1$, $D_s\bar{D}_{s1}+\bar{D_s}D_{s1}$ and $D^*\bar{D}_1+\bar{D}^*D_1$, as well as the $\psi(4160)$ and $\psi(4415)$ states have a strong influence over the observed $J/\psi \pi^+\pi^-$ and $h_c \pi^+\pi^-$ line-shapes. We propose an unitarized effective Lagrangian model to study the dynamical effect of the interaction between each known $\psi$ state and its closest thresholds. In addition, we present some of our recent motivating results, using the same model, for the $\psi(3770)$ resonance, where the distortion from a Breit-Wigner line-shape is shown to result not only from the kinematic interference, but also from the influence of the $D^0\bar{D}^0+D^+D^-$ one-loops. Moreover, two poles were found, at about 3.78 GeV and at 3.74 GeV, the second one generated dynamically, yet contributing to the distortion of the line-shape.Comment: Proceedings of the Conference "Hadron 17", held on 25-29 September, 2017, in Salamanca, Spai

Humans are superior — by human standards

Chapman & Huffman argue that humans are neither unique nor superior to other animals. I believe they are right in claiming that we are no more unique than any other species, but wrong in assuming that this means we cannot be ranked as superior. I show how this need not undermine the central aim of their target article, for superiority can only be measured with respect to a certain standard, and it’s only by using anthropocentric standards that we can be plausibly regarded as superior. Other — perhaps more neutral — standards yield different results