Social pedagogy and its relevance for Scottish social welfare

• Social pedagogy is an academic and professional discipline, which seeks to effect individual and social change through broadly educational means.• It does not offer a discrete approach or set of tools for practice but is a way of thinking, under which a range of different approaches might be situated• Across Europe, some form of social pedagogy or social education provides the theoretical and disciplinary basis for direct work with people across the life course• There is growing interest in social pedagogy in the UK; while initial interest focused on residential child care, its principles are increasingly recognised as being relevant across health,social care and education settings• Social pedagogy has a particular resonance for Scottish social welfare, where it chimes with Kilbrandon’s conception of social education, but also offers a suggestive framework within which to locate current policies• Evaluations of social pedagogy projects suggest that social pedagogic ideas can boost practitioners’ confidence and give them a language through which to better describe what they d

Five-dimensional imaging of freezing emulsions with solute effects

The interaction of objects with a moving solidification front is a common feature of many industrial and natural processes such as metal processing, the growth of single-crystals, the cryopreservation of cells, or the formation of sea ice. Solidification fronts interact with objects with different outcomes, from the total rejection to their complete engulfment. We image the freezing of emulsions in 5D (space, time, and solute concentration) with confocal microscopy. We show the solute induces long-range interactions that determine the solidification microstructure. The local increase of solute concentration enhances premelting, which controls the engulfment of droplets by the front and the evolution of grain boundaries. Freezing emulsions may be a good analogue of many solidification systems where objects interact with a solidification interface.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, 31 reference

Discrete R Symmetries and Anomalies

We comment on aspects of discrete anomaly conditions focussing particularly on $R$ symmetries. We review the Green-Schwarz cancellation of discrete anomalies, providing a heuristic explanation why, in the heterotic string, only the "model-independent dilaton" transforms non-linearly under discrete symmetries; this argument suggests that, in other theories, multiple fields might play a role in anomaly cancellations, further weakening any anomaly constraints at low energies. We provide examples in open string theories of non-universal discrete anomalies at low energies. We then consider the fact that $R$ symmetries are necessarily broken at low energies. We exhibit dynamical models, in which fields charged under the Standard Model gauge group (for example, a doublet and a triplet) gain roughly equal masses, but where the doublet and the triplet possess different discrete charges and the low-energy anomaly conditions fail.Comment: 13 pages; matches version published in JHEP; references added, expanded discussion about anomaly universality and gauge coupling unificatio

Consequences of large impacts on Enceladus' core shape

International audienceThe intense activity on Enceladus suggests a differentiated interior consisting of a rocky core, an internal ocean and an icy mantle. However, topography and gravity data suggests large heterogeneity in the interior, possibly including significant core topography. In the present study, we investigated the consequences of collisions with large impactors on the core shape. We performed impact simulations using the code iSALE2D considering large differentiated impactors with radius ranging between 25 and 100 km and impact velocities ranging between 0.24 and 2.4 km/s. Our simulations showed that the main controlling parameters for the post-impact shape of Enceladus’ rock core are the impactor radius and velocity and to a lesser extent the presence of an internal water ocean and the porosity and strength of the rock core. For low energy impacts, the impactors do not pass completely through the icy mantle. Subsequent sinking and spreading of the impactor rock core lead to a positive core topographic anomaly. For moderately energetic impacts, the impactors completely penetrate through the icy mantle, inducing a negative core topography surrounded by a positive anomaly of smaller amplitude. The depth and lateral extent of the excavated area is mostly determined by the impactor radius and velocity. For highly energetic impacts, the rocky core is strongly deformed, and the full body is likely to be disrupted. Explaining the long-wavelength irregular shape of Enceladus’ core by impacts would imply multiple low velocity (<2.4 km/s) collisions with deca-kilometric differentiated impactors, which is possible only after the LHB period