102,517 research outputs found
Public participation and New Urbanism: a conflicting agenda?
The challenges to public participation in planning are numerous. Inclusive and equitable processes are recognised as an ideal in much planning theory and practice, yet this ideal is increasingly difïŹcult to realise in todayâs societies that comprise diverse and multiple publics. Within the wider sustainability debate, âNew Urbanismâ has emerged as a pragmatic alternative to convention allow-density development. Concomitant with a range of prescribed physical outcomes, the New Urbanism movement advocates a process of âcitizen-based participatory planning and designâ. Charrettes, with urban design workshops, are the favoured tools for achieving this goal. However, it is argued that the adherence to a single type of participatory tool can be inconsistent with accepted ideals of participation processes and has several implications. Of particular concern is the role of the charrette planner or facilitator, a ïŹgure who has the potential to manipulate the public because of his/her inevitable allegiance to the New Urban agenda. In addition, the examination of a charrette process in a small New Zealand town raises several broader questions about the ability of the approach to address issues of inclusiveness and the recognition of difference, two fundamental elements of good participatory processes
A climate for change
This paper reports on the findings of a research project investigating the nature of participation of secondary school students in a collaborative research programme. Four groups of students, aged 14 to 15 years old, from a secondary school in the United Kingdom (UK) participated in the study. The students involved in the programme took the role of researchers investigating their peersâ perceptions of climate change using video to visually record their findings. University researchers worked collaboratively with the school students and a teacher from the school through an approach that empowered the students within the research process. Drawing from the ideas and issues raised from an initial briefing session, each group of students developed a short interview schedule to be used whilst investigating the views of their peers. Although the project was on a small scale, the data gathered from the brainstorming activity, video reports and reflective discussions provided a useful snap shot of how the participating students perceived their experience and the nature of their involvement in the research process. The research approach enabled students to take on the role of investigator when interviewing their peers and to offer a voice for both themselves and their peers. Introduction</p
Solar Dynamics, Rotation, Convection and Overshoot
We discuss recent observational, theoretical and modeling progress made in
understanding the Sun's internal dynamics, including its rotation, meridional
flow, convection and overshoot. Over the past few decades, substantial
theoretical and observational effort has gone into appreciating these aspects
of solar dynamics. A review of these observations, related helioseismic
methodology and inference and computational results in relation to these
problems is undertaken here.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, Space Science Review
First Observations of the Magnetic Field Geometry in Pre-stellar Cores
We present the first published maps of magnetic fields in pre-stellar cores,
to test theoretical ideas about the way in which the magnetic field geometry
affects the star formation process. The observations are JCMT-SCUBA maps of 850
micron thermal emission from dust. Linear polarizations at typically ten or
more independent positions in each of three objects, L1544, L183 and L43 were
measured, and the geometries of the magnetic fields in the plane of the sky
were mapped from the polarization directions. The observed polarizations in all
three objects appear smooth and fairly uniform. In L1544 and L183 the mean
magnetic fields are at an angle of around 30 degrees to the minor axes of the
cores. The L43 B-field appears to have been influenced in its southern half,
such that it is parallel to the wall of a cavity produced by a CO outflow from
a nearby T Tauri star, whilst in the northern half the field appears less
disturbed and has an angle of 44 degrees to the core minor axis. We briefly
compare our results with published models of magnetized cloud cores and
conclude that no current model can explain these observations simultaneously
with previous ISOCAM data.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figs, to appear in ApJ Letter
Search for Contact Interactions in the Dimuon Final State at ATLAS
The Standard Model has been successful in describing many fundamental aspects
of particle physics. However, there are some remaining puzzles that are not
explained within the context of its present framework. We discuss the
possibility to discover new physics in the ATLAS Detector via a four-fermion
contact interaction, much in the same way Fermi first described Weak
interactions. Using a simple ratio method on dimuon events, we can set a 95%
C.L. lower limit on the effective scale Lambda = 7.5 TeV (8.7 TeV) for the
constructive Left-left Isoscalar Model of quark compositeness with 100 pb^-1
(200 pb^-1) of data at sqrt{s} = 10 TeV.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of DPF-2009, Detroit, MI, July
2009, eConf C09072
Method of purifying metallurgical grade silicon employing reduced pressure atmospheric control
A method in which a quartz tube is charged with chunks of metallurgical grade silicon and/or a mixture of such chunks and high purity quartz sand, and impurities from a class including aluminum, boron, as well as certain transition metals including nickel, iron, and manganese is described. The tube is then evacuated and heated to a temperature within a range of 800 C to 1400 C. A stream of gas comprising a reactant, such as silicon tetrafluoride, is continuously delivered at low pressures through the charge for causing a metathetical reaction of impurities of the silicon and the reactant to occur for forming a volatile halide and leaving a residue of silicon of an improved purity. The reactant which included carbon monoxide gas and impurities such as iron and nickel react to form volatile carbonyls
Constraining the Surface Inhomogeneity and Settling Times of Metals on Accreting White Dwarfs
Due to the short settling times of metals in DA white dwarf atmospheres, any
white dwarfs with photospheric metals must be actively accreting. It is
therefore natural to expect that the metals may not be deposited uniformly on
the surface of the star. We present calculations showing how the temperature
variations associated with white dwarf pulsations lead to an observable
diagnostic of the surface metal distribution, and we show what constraints
current data sets are able to provide. We also investigate the effect that
time-variable accretion has on the metal abundances of different species, and
we show how this can lead to constraints on the gravitational settling times.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters, updated reference
Preasymptotic multiscaling in the phase-ordering dynamics of the kinetic Ising model
The evolution of the structure factor is studied during the phase-ordering
dynamics of the kinetic Ising model with conserved order parameter. A
preasymptotic multiscaling regime is found as in the solution of the
Cahn-Hilliard-Cook equation, revealing that the late stage of phase-ordering is
always approached through a crossover from multiscaling to standard scaling,
independently from the nature of the microscopic dynamics.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Europhys. Let
Noncontact GMR measurements of synthetic spin valves using IR reflection spectroscopy
The magnetorefractive effect has been used in infrared reflection spectroscopy to study the magnetotransport properties of synthetic spin valves. This optical noncontact technique shows excellent correlation with the electrical giant magnetoresistance data
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