3,069 research outputs found

    Phototube tests in the MiniBooNE experiment

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    The MiniBooNE neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab uses 1520 8-inch PMTs: 1197 PMTs are Hamamatsu model R1408 and the rest are model R5912. All of the PMTs were tested to qualify for inclusion in the detector, sorted according to their charge and time resolutions and dark rates. Seven PMTs underwent additional low light level tests. The relative detection efficiency as a function of incident angle for seven additional PMTs was measured. Procedures and results are presented.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures. Presented at Beaune 2005: 4th International Conference on New Developments in Photodetection, Beaune, France, 19-24 June 200

    Cape Town suburb highlights the good and bad of gentrification

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    LSE alumnus, Andrew Fleming is a Senior Researcher at the Cape Town Partnership in South Africa. In this post, he recounts how gentrification is changing the face of one of Cape Town’s oldest suburbs

    Ofcom should count the Greens as a major party

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    Ofcom’s consultation on their draft list of ‘major parties’ for the 2015 election contained one particularly controversial omission: the Green Party of England and Wales (including the Scottish Green Party for the purposes of the consultation). In this post, Andrew Fleming examines Ofcom’s application of their own criteria in making this decision, and then considers some other factors overlooked in Ofcom’s analysis

    Freedom from Equality: Democratic Education and the Failure of the NCLB

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    Deeply rooted societal concerns about what role democratic ideals should play within systems of education, and how much sway the federal government should hold over educational institutions, have been at the forefront of American educational policy for decades. These questions have more recently been brought into the limelight once again within the context of the implementation of charter schools and the controversial No Child Left Behind act, and its subsequent failure. The expressed goal of this paper is to provide an examination of what philosophies and ideals of so-called democratic education are have played major roles in developing the discourse surrounding, and the implementation of, US federal policy in K-12 education. Through a brief survey of the philosophical writings which have largely informed US policy, an analysis of these writings within the context of the rise of American charter schools and the NCLB, and a reflection on the common problems that such philosophies are fraught with, this paper seeks to provide some hope for transforming future models of American education for the better. Specifically, this study aims at forging a more nuanced understanding of the underlining beliefs that have driven recent educational legislation, and how democratic education has further marginalized low-income and traditionally underrepresented students

    The Last of the Great Auks: Oral History and Ritual Killings at St Kilda

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    The story of the killing of the ‘last’ great auk (Pinguinus impennis) in Britain, apparently put to death as a witch at Stac an Armin in the St Kilda archipelago c. 1840, is well known. However, other accounts claim that an auk was killed on the main island, Hirta, having been condemned to death by the celebrated men’s ‘parliament’. The historical veracity of three differing stories, which recount discreditable deeds in a deeply Christian community, is evaluated; it seems that fewest difficulties are raised if two great auks were killed, one on Hirta and the other on Stac an Armin. It is argued that this kind of avicide was a ‘ritual’ killing, to be understood in its historical context. The auk-killing probably took place in the mid to late 1840s, after the St Kilda minister had departed in the wake of the Disruption of 1843 - a particularly unsettling time within this small island community. A possible sighting of a pair of great auks on Soay (St Kilda) in 1890 is also briefly discussed

    Military Influence on Middle Eastern Democratization Following the Arab Spring

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    Despite experiencing countless wars, sectarian extremism, imperialism, and authoritarian rule, very few events have impacted the Middle East more significantly than the Arab Spring. Starting in 2010, the Arab Spring marked a turning point in which the people of numerous Arabic states collectively gathered to protest and combat the oppressive regimes that had controlled the region for decades. The Spring was indicative of the strong, recurring ambitions for revolution and regime change across the Middle East, presenting the Arab nations with an opportunity to reform their states from within. For some Middle Eastern states, the Arab Spring served as a catalyst for revolutions that overthrew authoritarian regimes and replaced them with governments that valued individual freedoms and sovereignty. Other states, however, chose not to pursue democratic goals after the Spring, often creating worse conditions than before. Although the Arab Spring was started with intentions of freeing the people of the Middle East from the regimes they existed under, the revolution simply failed within certain states. In this paper, a formal analysis will be conducted of two Middle Eastern states that felt entirely different effects from the Arab Spring: Egypt and Tunisia. From this analysis, a proposal will be formulated regarding how military status influenced Tunisia’s maintenance of a functional democracy, while Egypt fell victim to a coup and subsequent authoritarian rule following the Arab Spring

    Older Men Working it Out A strong face of ageing and disability

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    This hermeneutical study interprets and describes the phenomena of ageing and living with disability. The lived experiences of 14 older men and the horizon of this researcher developed an understanding of what it is like for men to grow old and, for some, to live with the effects of a major disability. The study is grounded in the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and framed in the context of embodiment, masculinity, and narrative. I conducted multiple in-depth interviews with older men aged from 67 to 83 years of age. Seven of the participants had experienced a stroke and I was able to explore the phenomenon of disability with them. Through thematic and narrative analyses of the textual data interpretations were developed that identified common meanings and understandings of the phenomena of ageing and disability. These themes and narratives reveal that the men's understandings are at odds with conventional negative views of ageing and disability. These older men are 'alive and kicking', they voice counternarratives to the dominant construction of ageing as decline and weakness, and have succeeded in remaking the lifeworld after stroke. Overall I have come to understand an overarching meaning of older men 'working it out' as illustrative of a strong face of ageing and disability. Older men seek out opportunities to participate actively in community life and, despite the challenges of ageing and disability, lead significant and meaningful lives. These findings challenge and extend our limited understandings of men's experiences of ageing and living with disability. This interpretation offers gendered directions for policy development, clinical practice, and future research

    The effects of piston stroke length and exit geometry on the kinematics of vortex rings

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    This investigation looked at the relationships between the piston stroke length and the exit geometry of a vortex generator and the dependent characteristics of a vortex ring. The vortex generator was operated with two exit geometries, one a conventional straight tube and the other a sharp edged orifice with the same exit diameter as the straight tube. Rings were generated in the University of Tennessee Space Institute water tunnel in order to facilitate the study of ring characteristics in both a quiescent fluid and in the presence of a uniform cross flow. Quantitative measurements were taken using hot film anemometry and qualitative observations were made using flow visualization techniques. Experimental results indicated that within the range of parameters used for these experiments, ring circulation and diameter increased with increasing stroke length. Additionally, the diameter of highly turbulent rings generated with the sharp edged exit increased slowly during the initial stage of ring motion. This was then followed by a rapid increase in ring growth. In addition, the sharp edged rings had larger cores and smaller overall diameters, and shed more of their initial vorticity into their wakes than the straight tube rings. Finally, tests yielded conclusive evidence of the tilting of vortex rings in the presence of a cross flow
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