2,865 research outputs found
Pharmacotherapy and airway remodelling in asthma?
No full textOver the last few decades attention has largely focused on airway inflammation in asthma, but more recently it has been appreciated that there are important structural airway changes which have been grouped together under the term "airway remodelling". It is only now that questions have been asked about the impact of treatment on these structural changes. This review examines the nature of these structural airway changes, the mechanisms of their generation, their potential consequences, and what is known about the ability of anti-asthma treatments to modulate these changes
Theory and practice in critical thinking A level and the evacuation of knowledge thesis
No full textThe concept of critical thinking has been influential in curriculum policy and practice across sectors of UK education and has been identified as a key consideration in recent consultations about A level reform. The purpose of this study is to describe the meanings attributed to critical thinking in expert accounts and to compare these with policy maker and participant meanings in the context of A level Critical Thinking. A distinctive feature is the attention given to underlying epistemological and ontological assumptions of these accounts. The prevailing concept of critical thinking is of a universally applicable set of skills and dispositions for assessing reasoning and evidence, which derives from the informal logic movement and rests on a fallibilist epistemology. This contrasts with discipline specific concepts. In social realist theory critical thinking has been associated with ‘soft genericism’ and implicated in an ‘evacuation of knowledge’. A critique and extension of this theory is proposed which differentiates between multiple forms and functions of critical thinking in the curriculum. Evidence on student views was gathered in a mixed methods case study, supplemented by a teacher response activity. Students attributed high value to critical thinking and were confident in their ability to apply skills to academic and life situations; whilst they felt that these skills were not taught in other subjects. In apparent contradiction, teachers suggested correspondence between the skills expected for high performance across subjects and those in A level Critical Thinking. Additionally, they emphasized the importance of subject specific contextualising to depth of critical evaluation. It was concluded that knowledge and critical thinking are complementary rather than conflicting forces in education and that a differently conceived critical thinking based on social constructionist epistemology is compatible with and essential to the knowledge curriculum envisaged by social realists
Simple drag prediction strategies for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle’s hull shape
No full textThe range of an AUV is dictated by its finite energy source and minimising the energy consumption is required to maximise its endurance. One option to extend the endurance is by obtaining the optimum hydrodynamic hull shape with balancing the trade-off between computational cost and fluid dynamic fidelity. An AUV hull form has been optimised to obtain low resistance hull. Hydrodynamic optimisation of hull form has been carried out by employing five parametric geometry models with a streamlined constraint. Three Genetic Algorithm optimisation procedures are applied by three simple drag predictions which are based on the potential flow method. The results highlight the effectiveness of considering the proposed hull shape optimisation procedure for the early stage of AUV hull desig
The geometric horopter
No full textAbstractTwo aspects of the geometric horopter, which here is based on the criterion of equality of angle, are clarified. The first is that in the fixation plane (containing the nodal points and the fixation point) the locus of points lying on the horopter is the larger arc of a circle, and not a full circle as has been previously accepted. The second is that elsewhere, the locus of these points is a straight line perpendicular to this plane and midway between the eyes. These rules hold for both symmetric and asymmetric convergence, and for fixation elevated or depressed from the horizontal
THE CORRELATION OF THE MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN STATE AND LAW IN THE DOCTRINE OF P.A. KROPOTKIN
No full textThe actual task of Russian state studies and jurisprudence remains the opposition to the ideological and theoretical constructions of Russian classical anarchism. Purpose: to establish the most significant features and disadvantages of P.A. Kropotkin’s interpretation of the correlation of state and law on the example of Medieval Europe. When writing the article, the author applies interdisciplinary and class approaches. General scientific and specific scientific methods are used: historical, problem-theoretical, formal-logical, textual. Materials: monuments of law, other historical sources, foreign and national historiography. The analysis shows that P.A. Kropotkin’s works are characterised not only by a pronounced anti-exploitation pathos, but also by an equally pronounced tendentiousness. Results: aprioriism, anti-statism and antilegism, radical localism, Eurocentrism, diffusionism, cyclism and catastrophism, clothed in the form of postulates, predetermined P.A. Kropotkin’s one-sided interpretations of the interaction of the medieval European state with positive and customary law. In the first case, it took a purely causative form, and in the second, it was predominantly conflictual. These are the key flaws of P.A. Kropotkin’s correlation concept
Ten eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud: fundamental parameters and Cloud distance
No full textWe present the first results of an observational programme to measure the fundamental parameters of over 100 eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The spectroscopic data have been obtained by using the two degree field (2dF) multi-object spectrograph on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope, and have been used in conjunction with photometry from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) data base of SMC eclipsing binaries. In this first paper, we discuss 10 systems: three are detached early-B binaries, six are in a semi-detached configuration, and one is in a marginal contact state. We conclude that the semi-detached systems are undergoing the slow mass-transfer phase of case-A binary evolution, in which the mass donor has reached its Roche lobe while still on the main sequence. Each system provides a primary distance indicator. By constructing a new calibration between spectral type and temperature for O and early B stars, we find a mean distance modulus to the SMC of 18.89 ′ 0.04 (statistical) ′0.10 (systematic). This value represents one of the most precise determinations to date of the distance to the SMC
Against High Interest Rates
No full textIn the economics of climate change, the future benefits of greenhouse gas emissions abatement are commonly discounted at a rate equal to the long-run return on corporate stocks, which averaged 6% per year during the 20th century. Since a 6% discount rate implies that one dollar of benefits obtained one century from the present attains a present value of less than one cent, this method implies that only modest steps towards greenhouse gas emissions are economically warranted. This chapter critiques this approach to discounting the future based on three distinct lines of reasoning. First, the use of high discount rates is inconsistent with classical utilitarianism, which holds that equal weight should be attached to the welfare of present and future generations. Second, the approach violates the principle of stewardship, which holds that it is morally unjust for present generations to engage in actions that impose uncompensated environmental costs on posterity. Third, the use of a 6% discount rate is appropriate in the analysis of public policies that have risk characteristics that are similar to those associated with corporate stocks. Economic theory, however, suggests that discount rates of 1% or less should be used to evaluate policies that reduce future risks. Since a main objective of climate change policies is to reduce the risks faced by future society, the use of high discount rates in the analysis of climate change policies is arguably inappropriate.
Flow-induced gate vibrations: Prevention of sef-excitation computation of dynamic gate behaviour and the use of models
No full textThe objective of this study is to develop design criteria for the dynamic behaviour of gates and valves. To this end, a resume of existing theories is given as well as an extended analysis of the added water mass, hydrodynamic rigidity and damping (also negative damping or self-excitation) and excitation by turbulent flow. New computation methods are presented for self-exciting vibrations: The ensuing introduction of an instability indicator permits the prediction of such vibrations in the design phase. Methods are described to calculate the added water mass and water damping in flowing water. Also treated are the instability of overflowing and falling water nappes, the response of a mass-spring system to noise excitation by turbulence, and the technique of hydroelastic models. Prior publications by the author on these subjects are to be found in the Appendices.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Quality and qualities of design studies, design research and design
No full textGreen Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Methodologie en Organisatie van Desig
Views of P.A. Krushevan on the National Problem in Russia: Moldavian or Russian Nationalist
No full textThe article deals with the national identity of P.A. Krushevan. Being of Moldavian nationality, he was a Russian conservative writer and journalist. At the beginning of the 19th century he served as a Russian nationalist in the political arena. The author shows that he was a supporter of Moldavian national traditions and a personality of the Moldavian national movement. At the same time Krushevan was an «imperial nationalist» and a Russian statesman. In behalf of Bessarabia peasants, he exposed the economic activity of «plutocracy», but he was a stranger to domestic anti-Semitism
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