The EU should prepare for all UK post-election scenarios. EPC Policy Brief, 6 December 2019

With the UK preparing to hold a general election on 12 December, the EU might be tempted to consider that since no progress on Brexit is likely to be made until then, it can temporarily turn its attention away from the UK to focus on other pressing matters. However, given the potential of a political shift in the UK, a reversal of their position on Brexit and another Scottish independence referendum, the EU should not take their eyes off the ball. It would be unwise for the EU not to use the coming weeks to prepare for the possible outcomes of the elections

Biology and health inequality.

Intriguing parallels between civil servant and nonhuman primate hierarchies suggest that highly stratified societies foster health inequalities. Determining how social differences translate into chronic disease remains a challenge, but neuroendocrine pathways appear to play a role

Why do people with mental distress have poor social outcomes? Four lessons from the capabilities approach

Macro level data indicate that people experiencing mental distress experience poor health, social and economic outcomes. The sociology of mental health has a series of dominant competing explanations of the mechanisms at personal, social and structural levels that generate these poor outcomes. This article explains the limitations of these approaches and takes up the challenge of Hopper (2007) who in this journal proposed the capabilities approach as a means of normatively reconceptualising the experiences of people with mental distress, with a renewed focus on agency, equality and genuine opportunity. Using an innovative methodology to operationalise the capabilities approach, findings from an in-depth qualitative study exploring the lived experiences of twenty-two people with recent inpatient experience of psychiatric units in Scotland are presented. The paper demonstrates that the capabilities approach can be applied to reconceptualise how unjust social outcomes happen for this social group. It distinguishes how the results of using a capabilities approach to analysis are distinct from established dominant analytical frameworks through four added features: a focus on actual lived outcomes; the role of capabilities as well as functionings; being normative; and incorporating agency. The capabilities approach is found to be an operationalisable framework; the findings have implications for professionals and systems in the specific context of mental health; and the capabilities approach offers a fertile basis for normative studies in wider aspects of health and wellbeing

A record of the design process A systematic investigation of the role, value, and effectiveness of the “process book” for interior design students

The aim of this study is to analyze the structure, role, and effectiveness of a design student's "process book" as a method of capturing and facilitating design thinking. The "process book" includes all of the work completed during a design project such as written notes, drawings, and research. This study poses the following research questions: 1) What role and value does the process book have to design students and instructors? 2) How can the process book structure help to reduce a student’s cognitive load, yet allow for the spontaneous actions involved in graphic thinking? This mixed-method research study includes an analysis and exploration of interior design student and instructor perspectives of the process book artifact and tool. The data collection and analysis involves two main components. The first includes an investigation of student and faculty perspectives of the structure, role, and effectivenss of the process book obtained from semi-structured interviews. The second part is an online student survey questionnaire of sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate student perspectives. One interior design program in a large Midwestern university was selected. All students within the undergraduate and graduate program were invited to participate in the survey questionnaire and all faculty were interviewed. Interviews were audio-taped and later transcribed for coding and interpretation. This study serves as a case study and pilot study to provide a foundation for a larger-scale future research initiative. Results from this study will inform two future initiatives: 1) design of a larger-scale research design involving a multi-university sampling frame, and 2) development of a “digital process book” research study. Keywords: Design Process, Design Education, Drawing Research</p

Attractor Flows from Defect Lines

Deforming a two dimensional conformal field theory on one side of a trivial defect line gives rise to a defect separating the original theory from its deformation. The Casimir force between these defects and other defect lines or boundaries is used to construct flows on bulk moduli spaces of CFTs. It turns out, that these flows are constant reparametrizations of gradient flows of the g-functions of the chosen defect or boundary condition. The special flows associated to supersymmetric boundary conditions in N=(2,2) superconformal field theories agree with the attractor flows studied in the context of black holes in N=2 supergravity.Comment: 28 page

Luther’s Mysticism, Pietism, and Contemplative Spirituality

To ask, “Why church?” certainly stirs multilayered theological, missional, ecclesial, and pastoral reflection. The question also has spiritual ramifications. To explore some of them, we will trace a thread of the Lutheran spiritual tradition from Martin Luther’s own “faith mysticism” through particular aspects of German pietism. That overview will provide a foundation for engaging the contemporary contemplative movement, in order to discern how its concepts and practices might provide insight for the practice of spirituality. Our conviction is that deepening the interior journey through a living, active faith leads not to withdrawal but to an awareness—even a vulnerability—that welcomes a healthy struggle with the realities of our world

Collaboration and Conflict in Europe around the Early Tranquebar Mission

Some 300 years ago, on July 9,1706, a new epoch in Protestantism began when Bartholomew Ziegenbaig and Heinrich Plütschau landed as missionaries at Tranquebar on the eastern coast of southern India. This mission, though not as well known as later Moravian Brethren missionary efforts or William Carey’s momentous journey, must be regarded as the first on-going Protestant foreign mission work.^ The cooperative nature of this endeavor throughout much of the eighteenth century has frequently been noted^ and stands in stark contrast to the more insular character of missions in the nineteenth century. It is the story of how an Anglican voluntary society in England supported a Royal Danish Mission in the sending of Lutheran missionaries from the Pietist center of Halle to Tranquebar

Evangelicals and Roman Catholic Spirituality

After almost twenty-five years of teaching at an evangelical seminary in the Pacific Northwest I am seeing an emerging interest in and hunger for Catholic spirituality and mysticism among many of our students, both at the master’s and doctor of ministry levels. It is exciting to see spirituality as a conduit for Roman Catholic – Evangelical ecumenism and dialogue