Plato's city-soul analogy: the slow train to ordinary virtue

Plato's city-soul analogy underwrites his overarching argument in the Philebus. I sketch the main lines of the analogy, and then defend it against two prominent objections

Almost Sure Invariance Principle For Nonuniformly Hyperbolic Systems

We prove an almost sure invariance principle that is valid for general classes of nonuniformly expanding and nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems. Discrete time systems and flows are covered by this result. In particular, the result applies to the planar periodic Lorentz flow with finite horizon. Statistical limit laws such as the central limit theorem, the law of the iterated logarithm, and their functional versions, are immediate consequences.Comment: 21 pages, To appear in Communications in Mathematical Physic

Managing investment in teaching and learning technologies

Information and communications technologies are radically changing the way that teaching and learning activities are organised and delivered within HE institutions. A wide range of technologies is being deployed in quite complex and interactive ways, including virtual learning environments (VLEs), mobile communication technologies, digital libraries and on-line resources. A key challenge for university leaders is to maximise the benefits derived from these investments for all institutional stakeholders (not just teachers and learners), while at the same time minimising cost and risk (Ford et al, 1996). This requires not only co-ordinated strategies for change management but also new approaches to decision-making and to the evaluation of changes resulting from these decisions

Pressure Groups and Experts in Environmental Regulation

We study a problem of adverse selection in the context of environmental regulation, where the firm may suffer from a certain degree of ignorance about its own type. In a framework like the construction of a certain infrastructure project, the presence of ignorance about its impact on the environment, can play an important role in the determination of the regulatory policy. First, an optimal contract is constructed for any exogenous level of ignorance. Second, the presence of potentially informed third-parties is studied from the perspective of the regulator, which allows us to analyze the impact on the efficiency of the contract, of the presence of environmentalists and of experts. Then, we obtain some insights on how the problem differs when the degree of ignorance is a choice variable for the firm. We finally use our results to derive policy implications concerning the existing envoronmental regulation, and the potential role of interested parties as information providers.environmental regulation, ignorance, environmentalists, experts.

A new portable 3-D gyroscope system for the evaluation of upper limb function

This study aims to develop a lightweight, portable and cost effective system for 3D motion analysis of the upper limb which can be readily applied within a clinical environment

Biomechanics of stair descent in older adults

Negotiating stairs is one of the most difficult activities of daily living faced by older adults. Many researchers have studied the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal demands of stair ascent but there is little research on the biomechanics of stair descent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the biomechanics of stair descent in older adults

A model for evaluating the institutional costs and benefits of ICT initiatives in teaching and learning in higher education

Significant investments are being made in the application of new information and communications technologies (ICT) to teaching and learning in higher education. However, until recently, there has been little progress in devising an integrated cost‐benefit model that decision‐makers can use to appraise ICT investment options from the wider institutional perspective. This paper describes and illustrates a model that has been developed to enable evaluations of the costs and benefits of the use of ICT. The strengths and limitations of the model are highlighted and discussed