4101 research outputs found
Sort by
Aristotle, Montaigne, Kant and the others : How friendship came to be conceived as it is conceived in the Western tradition
No full textConcepts of inter-personal relations are most elusive. They conceal assumptions, norms, beliefs and various associated notions, and become even more opaque and potent when they transcend the language in which they are used and come to reflect a culture or a tradition. Escaping the critical gaze of those “in” the tradition, these concepts and their theoretical baggage remain largely alien to those outside it. This gap fosters a sense of alienation, if not of exclusion, on the part of those living outside what they often regard as a charmed circle. No doubt, friendship is unlikely to figure on the danger list of such concepts. Yet, the concept is not innocent. It reflects philosophical and social presuppositions accumulated in the course of its long history and bears the weight of the paradigm shifts it underwent. This essay identifies some of these presuppositions built into it, outlines major steps in its development, and offers reasons why this particulate inter-personal relation came to be conceived the way it is conceived in “the Western tradition”
Investigating the Way Soccer Coach Education Discusses Player Learning Styles
No full textFormal coach education programs have seen a significant increase in the number of coaches attending and completing recognized coaching awards and qualifications recently. However, research has demonstrated that such formal coach education has limited impact on the practice of the coach when they return to working with their players. To date coach education research has failed to analyze the way in which learning styles have been presented on such awards and qualifications and the impact such knowledge may have on the coaches’ practice. As such, research to investigate the promotion of learning styles within a coach education environment took place to establish if coach education promotes the use of specific teaching strategies for particular learners via the use of learning styles. The research process included semi-structured interviews with eight Football Association Level One Award Coaches, who identified that they were clearly and explicitly introduced to the concept of VARK learning styles during their coach education experiences. These findings demonstrate entry-level soccer coaches in the UK are encouraged to place the learning style of a player at the center of learning despite the suggestion from research that learning styles have a negligible impact on learning. The research also demonstrated that coach educators and the curriculum of coach education courses failed to utilize current research to reflect the latest teaching and learning strategies
Bioresorbable Electrode Array for Electrophysiological and Pressure Signal Recording in the Brain
No full textMedical implantation of an electrocorticography (ECoG) recording system for brain monitoring is an effective clinical tool for seizure focus location and brain disease diagnosis. Planar and flexible ECoG electrodes can minimize the risks of infection and serious inflammatory response, and their good shape adaptability allows the device to fit complex cortex shape and structure to record brain signals with high spatial and temporal resolution. However, these ECoG electrodes require an additional surgery to remove the implant, which imposes potential medical risks. Here, a novel flexible and bioresorbable ECoG device integrated with an intracortical pressure sensor for monitoring swelling of the cortex during operation is reported. The ECoG device is fabricated with poly(l-lactide) and polycaprolactone composite and transient metal molybdenum. In vivo tests on rats show that the ECoG system can record the dynamic changes in brain signals for the different epilepsy stages with high resolution, while the malleable pressure sensor shows a linear relationship between the pressure and resistance in in vitro tests. In vitro degradation experiments show that the ECoG system can work stably for about five days before loss of efficacy, and the whole ECoG system degrades completely in a phosphate buffer solution in about 100 days
Enhanced performance triboelectric nanogenerators based on solid polymer electrolytes with different concentrations of cations
No full textTriboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), as a promising energy harvesting technology, have attracted considerable attention and various approaches have been developed to improve their output performance. An innovative strategy was proposed recently by using solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) with asymmetric pairing ions as the friction layer, showing excellent potential to achieve high-performance TENGs. However, it is far from clear what are the effects of SPE on TENG performance as only one electrolyte, CaCl2, was used for the investigation. Herein, PTFE/PVA-MClx TENGs based on SPEs with different types of electrolytes, including LiCl, ZnCl2, CaCl2, FeCl3, and AlCl3, were fabricated and their performances were investigated. All the devices demonstrated superior output performance than that of the control PTFE/PVA TENG. Specifically, the PTFE/PVA-LiCl TENG exhibited remarkably enhanced triboelectric performance with an output voltage of ~1345 V, a short-circuit current density of ~260 mA m−2 and a maximum power density of ~83 W m−2, four times higher than that of the control PTFE/PVA TENG. Detailed investigations revealed that in combination with improved triboelectric property, the enhanced interaction of SPEs with opposite triboelectric layers further significantly boost the triboelectric outputs. This work presents a new method to increase the interaction between triboelectric layers to effectively improve the outputs of TENGs, and to facilitate the development of high performance TENGs.
Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) based solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) with different ion concentrations doping were utilized to fabricate high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) due to their much improved triboelectric property and enhanced interaction with opposite tribolayer. The PTFE/PVA-LiCl TENG demonstrates an outstanding triboelectric output with a peak output voltage of ~1345 V, a short-circuit current density of ~260 mA m−2 and a maximum power density of ~83 W m−2, much higher than these of TENGs with specific surface micro-structures and optimized device structures reported so far. This study presents a new strategy to increase the interaction between triboelectric layers to effectively improve the outputs of TENGs, and to facilitate the development of high performance TENGs. [Display omitted]
•Different types of electrolytes have been utilized to dope and modulate PVA based solid polymer electrolytes tribolayer to achieve much enhanced transferred charge density of 210 μC m−2.•The PTFE/PVA-LiCl TENG demonstrates much enhanced triboelectric performance and stability, achieving a high power density of 83 W m−2.•Electrolyte addition enhances the triboelectric property of PVA based SPE as a positive triboelectric material.•Enhanced interaction between triboelectric layers further improves the outputs of TENGs significantly
Building Collaborative Trust in Construction Procurement Strategies
No full textProvides a practical framework and toolkit for improved construction project outcomes based on trust and collaboration This book explores the concept of trust as a tool in improved construction procurement strategies, and provides important insight into the influence of trust on the success of construction projects and redevelopment programs. It is a practical guide that offers readers a solid outline and expert strategies for improving project outcomes through collaboration-ultimately proving that teamwork can really make the dream work. Building Collaborative Trust in Construction Procurement Strategies: A Practical Guide incorporates a toolkit, complete with flowcharts, to introduce certain trust building interventions within projects. It shows how initiatives and factors that influence collaborative trust can be easily implemented and embedded in construction management for improved practice. It also covers potential challenges, risks, problems, and barriers when it comes to trust. In addition, the book looks at the influences for collaborative trust in the construction industry as well as implications in practice for it in construction. It finishes by looking at the future of collaborative trust in construction procurement. Teaches the importance and influence of trust on collaborative working and partnerships principles Examines to what extent trust within collaborative working arrangements influences the success of collaborative working practices Covers the effect that certain factors and trust building mechanisms have on collaborative working and partnerships and how they can be embedded into procurement of projects Discusses what constitutes best practice and how trust in collaborative procurement practices influences the success of construction projects Building Collaborative Trust in Construction Procurement Strategies: A Practical Guide is an excellent book for construction management professionals, including clients, consultants, and contractors. It will also serve as a helpful text for undergraduate and postgraduate students and academics
The impact of Interactive Whiteboard use in the secondary EFL learning classroom on student engagement and active learning.
No full textThe present study aimed at investigating the impact of the interactive whiteboard on student engagement and active learning through the context of using Whiteboards in a Greek classroom with English language students. Existing literature, has revealed that such a relationship exists under particular circumstances. It was therefore interesting to look at this relationship in the context of teaching English to secondary school pupils.The present study contributes to the expansion of the current research literature as it examines the relationship of the interactive whiteboard technology and student engagement and active learning.A mixed research design methodology has been utilized with a small sample of 9 secondary school pupils (aged 13 years old) attending English lessons within a private institute in Kallithea, Greece. Three research tools were employed in order to assess the impact of the interactive whiteboard on student engagement and active learning: observation protocols, questionnaires and an interview. The data collection produced a range of qualitative and quantitative data.The findings revealed that the interactive whiteboard can have positive impact on student engagement and active learning. More specifically, participation and active engagement increase.The study has implications for the use of the interactive whiteboards in EFL teaching to secondary classroom pupils. Furthermore, the findings of this study may assist practitioners in the education sector to develop a better understanding of the valuable contributions of the interactive whiteboard to teaching as well as to assist trainers to provide relevant training
Gaming against anxiety: user-feedback in the development of a therapeutic game for adolescent anxiety disorders
No full textChildness or child-less: signs taken for wonders
No full textIt is argued that there are several problems with Peter Hollindale’s concept, “childness.” First, it is suggested that the term not only has too much semantic latitude, but that its definitional attributes are themselves incompatible, pulling in different directions: from the pragmatic and empirical to the more figurative and aspirational. Linked with this point is a second one: that despite Hollindale’s avowed claim that his term is ‘extremely flexible, and … historically, socially and culturally determined’ (pp. 76-7), it ultimately defers to a biological essentialism.Thirdly, and as a result of this, the term fails adequately to address many key issues in children’s literature criticism, despite Hollindale’s otherwise exemplary and perceptive readings of texts. Finally, it is suggested that the key issue, of how childhood is seen to be constructed, confers on the child an unwarranted voluntarism that neglects questions of power (i.e. of socialisation and colonisation) probed by others, resulting in a rather Romantic conceptualisation of the child – and, indeed, of “childness.
Spectrum sensing in cognitive radio using multitaper method based on MIMO-OFDM techniques
No full textThe current inefficient utilization of frequency spectrum has alerted regulatory bodies to streamline improvements. Cognitive radio (CR) has recently received considerable attention and is widely perceived as a promising improvement tool in estimating, or equivalently sensing, the frequency spectrum for wireless communication systems. The cognitive cycle in CR systems is capable of recognizing and processing better spectrum estimation (SE) and hence promotes the efficiency of spectrum utilization. Among different SE methods, the multi-taper method (MTM) shows encouraging results. Further performance improvement in the SE for CR can be achieved by applying multiple antennas and combining techniques. This paper proposes a constructive development of SE using MTM, abbreviated as MTSE, and by employing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), parsed into separate parallel channels using singular value decomposition (SVD), and maximum ratio combining (MRC) configurations. Deviating from these improvements, however, multicarrier systems such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) show inferior sensing performances due to the noise multiplicity generated and combined from all subcarrier channels. By means of the quadrature matrix form, the probabilities for such integrated settings of SE have been derived to reach at their approximate asymptotes. Numerical simulations revealed specific better performances stemmed from coupling the fashionable MTSE and MIMO technologies
Streams of Becoming: Nietzsche, Physiology, and Literary Modernism
No full textThe isolation of the individual ought not to deceive us: something flows on underneath individuals.Although it impinges on virtually everything that he writes, Nietzsche’s thinking of becoming is never elaborated in comprehensive terms. Silently and anarchically, the energy of becoming pulses through his writings, a dark and vagrant current upon which so much of his philosophy is buoyed. From his first acquaintance with the serenity of ancient Greek art, Nietzsche had the suspicion that something rippled underneath the orderly and implacable Hellenic world. In The Birth of Tragedy he suggests that Apollonian delight in restraint, exemplified by the imposing columns and statues and rigid political structure of the Doric state, could only be understood as a permanent military encampment against the rush (Rausch) of the Dionysian (BT, 4). In his later writings on will to power the world is envisaged as a “sea of forces flowing and rushing together, eternally changing, eternally flooding back, with tremendous years of recurrence, with an ebb and flood of its forms” (KSA, 11:38 [12])