FIGHTING THE CIVIL WAR IN THE CLASSROOM: High School Outreach at LSU

“High School Outreach at LSU Undergraduates’ attitudes about learning history have been shaped long before they matriculate to university. Many students do not like the rote memorization that some high school history courses still require. Many others have a fascination with the past but ...

Who needs a mind when you have thousands of fingers?

Mather’s target article aligns with a common tendency of granting the octopus a mind or consciousness. But what is the meaning of an octopus’s mind? Is it part of nature or is it observer-dependent, imputed to satisfy our own psychological needs? In this commentary, I build on my own experience with octopuses to challenge the notion that we can conclusively attribute a mind to an animal; and I question the scientific usefulness of doing so

Animal sentience? Neuroscience has no answers

Woodruff’s target article provides a detailed review of comparative studies on brain and behavior in teleosts. However, the relevance of the scientific data to the question of consciousness rests solely on the validity of a small set of so-called requirements for consciousness. I use the target article to demonstrate that the neuroscientific study of animal consciousness in general relies on external, highly questionable and unfalsifiable criteria, and therefore fails to resolve the question of which animal species are sentient. Fish behavior can be remarkably complex, but whether fish are conscious remains a matter of belief

Comment on "Regularizing capacity of metabolic networks"

In a recent paper, Marr, Muller-Linow and Hutt [Phys. Rev. E 75, 041917 (2007)] investigate an artificial dynamic system on metabolic networks. They find a less complex time evolution of this dynamic system in real networks, compared to networks of reference models. The authors argue that this suggests that metabolic network structure is a major factor behind the stability of biochemical steady states. We reanalyze the same kind of data using a dynamic system modeling actual reaction kinetics. The conclusions about stability, from our analysis, are inconsistent with those of Marr et al. We argue that this issue calls for a more detailed type of modeling

Jurors' Statement

In a world dominated by pop culture, society and the media – how is identity defined? In collaboration with gallery nine5, Karen Gutfreund, Exhibition Director of the Women’s Caucus for Art, is pleased to announce an international exhibition of 25 works from 21 female artists juried by Anne Swartz and Maria Elena Buszek. Identity seeks to expose the extremism of a consumer culture dominated by Western notions of beauty and the pursuit of idealized feminine perfection by exploring themes of power, representation and objectification. Female artists, in particular, face the challenge of identifying themselves amidst a society determined to do it for them. The artists featured in Identity attempt to manipulate the boundaries of authority and dominance and explore deeper themes of control. The viewer is challenged to confront his or her own gaze on the body and reflect on the psychological aspects of the female persona. Drawing from a feminist perspective, the selected works aim to define gender and identity through the artist’s terms, whether through accepting or rejecting society's view, and voicing their individual definitions of the powerful feminine. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, May 31st from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Exhibition runs from May 31 to June 22, 2014 Performance Art by Megan Mantia and Leone Anne Reeves: GIRL WORLD OUR WORLD OUR BRAINS WE LIVE HERE AND WE LOVE IT: An Erotic Memoir on May 31 at 4:30 p.m. The artists in the exhibition at gallery nine5 are Shonagh Adelman, Chan & Mann, Sally Edelstein, Claire Joyce, Lauren Kalman, Beth Lakamp, Jessica Lichtenstein, Jessica Maria Manley, Megan Mantia and Leone Anne Reeves, Sarah Maple, Ellen Deitell Newman, Samantha Persons, Mei Xian QIu, Jennifer Reeder, Phyllis Rosser, Sonal Shah, Erin Sparler, Joanne Ungar, Cristina Velazquez, and Meghan Willis

Simulation of Entangled Polymer Solutions

We present a computer simulation of entangled polymer solutions at equilibrium. The chains repel each other via a soft Gaussian potential, appropriate for semi-dilute solutions at the scale of a correlation blob. The key innovation to suppress chain crossings is to use a pseudo-continuous model of a backbone which effectively leaves no gaps between consecutive points on the chain, unlike the usual bead-and-spring model. Our algorithm is sufficiently fast to observe the entangled regime using a standard desktop computer. The simulated structural and mechanical correlations are in fair agreement with the expected predictions for a semi-dilute solution of entangled chains

The formative years of relativity : the history and meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Foreword Diana Kormos Buchwald ix Preface xiii I Preliminaries 1 1 Introduction 3 2 Einstein's First Trip to America 11 3 Structure and Contents of The Meaning of Relativity 17 II The Emerging World of General Relativity 23 1 Physics and Geometry 25 2 The Principles of General Relativity 34 3 The First Solutions and the Challenge of Their Interpretation 46 4 Einstein and the Astronomers 52 5 The Genesis of Relativistic Cosmology 69 6 The Controversy over Gravitational Waves 94 7 Philosophical Debates on General Relativity 106 8 The Quest for a Unified Field Theory 122 9 Early Monographs on Relativity 140 10 Beyond the Formative Years 155 III Einstein's Book with the Appendixes 159 1 Space and Time in Pre-relativity Physics 161 2 The Theory of Special Relativity 184 3 The General Theory of Relativity 215 4 The General Theory of Relativity (Continued) 239 5 Appendix for the Second Edition: On the "Cosmologic Problem" 269 6 Appendix II (PUP 4th edition, 1953): Generalization of Gravitation Theory 293 7 Appendix II (PUP 5th edition, 1956): Relativistic Theory of the Non-symmetric Field 326 IV The Popular Lectures 361 1 Introductory Remarks 363 2 Einstein's Lectures 366 V Biographical Notes on the Protagonists of the Formative Years 387 Index 40

Agile Software Development during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Technology Company Survey

A common baseline is that Agile-based software development is conducted by co-located teams working in well-equipped office workspaces. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have cast new light on those assumptions. Suddenly, developers were no longer co-located with their teams and their well-equipped workspaces were vacant. How did the lockdowns, and the speed in which they were implemented, affect developers and development efforts? Did the lockdowns lead to diminished product quality? How was employee productivity impacted? A survey questionnaire was created to answer these questions