RISK AND SACRAMENT: BEING HUMAN IN A COVID‐19 WORLD

In this article we examine the changing relationship to risk as revealed by the COVID‐19 pandemic and the ways this has, and may in future, alter sacramental practice, considering the radical effects this could have on traditional Christian practice. We consider the cultural trends that may lie behind this developing approach to risk, examining this in the context of an emergent transhuman identity that is technologically moderated and seeks to overcome risks of human mortality

Designing and Piloting a Tool for the Measurement of the Use of Pronunciation Learning Strategies

What appears to be indispensable to drive the field forward and ensure that research findings will be comparable across studies and provide a sound basis for feasible pedagogic proposals is to draw up a classification of PLS and design on that basis a valid and reliable data collection tool which could be employed to measure the use of these strategies in different groups of learners, correlate it with individual and contextual variables, and appraise the effects of training programs. In accordance with this rationale, the present paper represents an attempt to propose a tentative categorization of pronunciation learning strategies, adopting as a point of reference the existing taxonomies of strategic devices (i.e. O'Malley and Chamot 1990; Oxford 1990) and the instructional options teachers have at their disposal when dealing with elements of this language subsystem (e.g. Kelly 2000; Goodwin 2001). It also introduces a research instrument designed on the basis of the classification that shares a number of characteristics with Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning but, in contrast to it, includes both Likert-scale and open-ended items. The findings of a pilot study which involved 80 English Department students demonstrate that although the tool requires considerable refinement, it provides a useful point of departure for future research into PLS

Particle physics with a laser-driven positronium atom

A detailed quantum-electrodynamic calculation of muon pair creation in laser-driven electron-positron collisions is presented. The colliding particles stem from a positronium atom exposed to a superintense laser wave of linear polarization, which allows for high luminosity. The threshold laser intensity of this high-energy reaction amounts to a few 10^22 W/cm^2 in the near-infrared frequency range. The muons produced form an ultrarelativistic, strongly collimated beam, which is explicable in terms of a classical simple-man's model. Our results indicate that the process can be observed at high positronium densities with the help of present-day laser technology.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Analysis of Granular Flow in a Pebble-Bed Nuclear Reactor

Pebble-bed nuclear reactor technology, which is currently being revived around the world, raises fundamental questions about dense granular flow in silos. A typical reactor core is composed of graphite fuel pebbles, which drain very slowly in a continuous refueling process. Pebble flow is poorly understood and not easily accessible to experiments, and yet it has a major impact on reactor physics. To address this problem, we perform full-scale, discrete-element simulations in realistic geometries, with up to 440,000 frictional, viscoelastic 6cm-diameter spheres draining in a cylindrical vessel of diameter 3.5m and height 10m with bottom funnels angled at 30 degrees or 60 degrees. We also simulate a bidisperse core with a dynamic central column of smaller graphite moderator pebbles and show that little mixing occurs down to a 1:2 diameter ratio. We analyze the mean velocity, diffusion and mixing, local ordering and porosity (from Voronoi volumes), the residence-time distribution, and the effects of wall friction and discuss implications for reactor design and the basic physics of granular flow.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figure

Stability of Circular Orbits in General Relativity: A Phase Space Analysis

Phase space method provides a novel way for deducing qualitative features of nonlinear differential equations without actually solving them. The method is applied here for analyzing stability of circular orbits of test particles in various physically interesting environments. The approach is shown to work in a revealing way in Schwarzschild spacetime. All relevant conclusions about circular orbits in the Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime are shown to be remarkably encoded in a single parameter. The analysis in the rotating Kerr black hole readily exposes information as to how stability depends on the ratio of source rotation to particle angular momentum. As a wider application, it is exemplified how the analysis reveals useful information when applied to motion in a refractive medium, for instance, that of optical black holes.Comment: 20 pages. Accepted for publication in Int. J. theor. Phy

Spatial and isotopic niche partitioning during winter in chinstrap and Adélie penguins from the South Shetland Islands

© The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ecosphere 6 (2015): art125, doi:10.1890/ES14-00287.1.Closely related species with similar ecological requirements should exhibit segregation along spatial, temporal, or trophic niche axes to limit the degree of competitive overlap. For migratory marine organisms like seabirds, assessing such overlap during the non-breeding period is difficult because of long-distance dispersal to potentially diffuse foraging habitats. Miniaturization of geolocation devices and advances in stable isotope analysis (SIA), however, provide a robust toolset to quantitatively track the movements and foraging niches of wide ranging marine animals throughout much of their annual cycle. We used light-based geolocation tags and analyzed stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from tail feathers to simultaneously characterize winter movements, habitat utilization, and overlap of spatial and isotopic niches of migratory chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) and Adélie (P. adeliae) penguins during the austral winter of 2012. Chinstrap penguins exhibited a higher diversity of movements and occupied portions of the Southern Ocean from 138° W to 30° W within a narrow latitudinal band centered on 60° S. In contrast, all tracked Adélie penguins exhibited smaller-scale movements into the Weddell Sea and then generally along a counter-clockwise path as winter advanced. Inter-specific overlap during the non-breeding season was low except during the months immediately adjacent to the summer breeding season. Intra-specific overlap by chinstraps from adjacent breeding colonies was higher throughout the winter. Spatial segregation appears to be the primary mechanism to maintain inter- and intra-specific niche separation during the non-breeding season for chinstrap and Adélie penguins. Despite low spatial overlap, however, the data do suggest that a narrow pelagic corridor in the southern Scotia Sea hosted both chinstrap and Adélie penguins for most months of the year. Shared occupancy and similar isotopic signatures of the penguins in that region suggests that the potential for inter-specific competition persists during the winter months. Finally, we note that SIA was able to discriminate eastward versus westward migrations in penguins, suggesting that SIA of tail feathers may provide useful information on population-level distribution patterns for future studies.Funds for the GLS tags were provided by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Additional support for this project was provided by a Woods Hole Oceanographic Devonshire Scholarship as well as funding from the Ocean Life Institute and SeaWorld Bush Gardens Conservation Fund to MJP

Anomalous high-magnetic field electronic state of the nematic superconductors FeSe₁₋ₓSₓ

Understanding superconductivity requires detailed knowledge of the normal electronic state from which it emerges. A nematic electronic state that breaks the rotational symmetry of the lattice can potentially promote unique scattering relevant for superconductivity. Here, we investigate the normal transport of superconducting FeSe1−xSx across a nematic phase transition using high-magnetic fields up to 69 T to establish the temperature and field dependencies. We find that the nematic state is dominated by a linear resistivity at low temperatures that evolves towards Fermi-liquid behavior, depending on the composition x and the impurity level. Near the nematic end point, we find an extended temperature regime with ∼T1.5 resistivity, different from the behavior found near an antiferromagnetic critical point. The variation of the resistivity exponent with temperature reflects the importance of the nematoelastic coupling that can also suppress divergent critical fluctuations at the nematic end point. The transverse magnetoresistance inside the nematic phase has a ∼H1.55 dependence over a large magnetic field range and it displays an unusual peak at low temperatures inside the nematic phase. Our study reveals anomalous transport inside the nematic phase, influenced by both changes in the electronic structure and the scattering with the lattice and spin fluctuations