Information Society for Enlightened Voting

Among the millions of words uttered and written on the subject of democracy, Winston Churchill’s are among the most famous: “Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” [4] The occasion of the remark – it was made on 11 November 1947, when the great wartime leader spoke for the opposition in Britain’s House of Commons – is a reminder of how far the world has since travelled. Yet the passing of six decades notwithstanding, mankind is still subservient to the classical dogma embodied in Churchill’s phrase: that democracy is synonymous with universal suffrage. It was always open to question. But today, new and evolving technologies enable us to discard it – not to abolish democracy (who would want to do that?), but to enrich democracy with more effective, more innovative and more moral forms of enlightened government across the world

On the survival of brown dwarfs and planets engulfed by their giant host star

The recent discovery of two Earth-mass planets in close orbits around an evolved star has raised questions as to whether substellar companions can survive encounters with their host stars. We consider whether these companions could have been stripped of significant amounts of mass during the phase when they orbited through the dense inner envelopes of the giant. We apply the criterion derived by Murray et al. for disruption of gravitationally bound objects by ram pressure, to determine whether mass loss may have played a role in the histories of these and other recently discovered low-mass companions to evolved stars. We find that the brown dwarf and Jovian mass objects circling WD 0137-349, SDSS J08205+0008, and HIP 13044 are most unlikely to have lost significant mass during the common envelope phase. However, the Earth-mass planets found around KIC 05807616 could well be the remnant of one or two Jovian mass planets that lost extensive mass during the common envelope phase.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Medical students' comfort levels with performing the basic head and neck examination in practice: follow-up during the core clerkship year.

ObjectiveFollowing our preliminary study on junior medical students' comfort levels in performing the head and neck physical examination (H&NPE) before and after a department-led teaching session, we assessed the longitudinal effect of this session on students during the core clinical clerkship year, in which these skills were performed on real patients.DesignAnonymous cross-sectional survey study as a follow-up to previous intervention.MethodsOverall, 101 and 90 second-year medical students participated in an H&NPE teaching session 1 year before the current survey administration in 2 consecutive years. The same cohorts of students, as third years, were asked to rate their comfort levels (0-5-point Likert scale) in performing the H&NPE and the importance of otolaryngology rotations in medical school and primary care residency training.ResultsOf the 101 and 90 students, 53 and 46 medical students completed the follow-up survey in each respective year. For both classes, compared with before the teaching session, students reported an average comfort level of 2.8 (somewhat to moderately comfortable) in performing the complete H&NPE (p < 0.0001) during the core clinical clerkship year. Similar changes were observed for the individual ear, nose, mouth, and neck components of the examination (all p's < 0.0002). Students at follow-up reported statistically similar comfort levels when compared with immediately after the teaching session for the ear, oral cavity, and neck examinations.ConclusionThe initial teaching session persistently improved medical students' comfort levels in performing the H&NPE, with some attrition in comfort levels with performing the nasal examination and complete H&NPE. An otolaryngologist-directed, practical educational intervention may permanently reinforce the acquisition of complex skills such as the H&NPE

Changing student behaviour in schools located in areas of socioeconomic deprivation: findings from the 'coastal academies' research

No embargo can be found for this publication; there is no DO

The binary fraction of planetary nebula central stars I. A high-precision, I-band excess search

In an attempt to determine how many planetary nebulae derive from binary interactions, we have started a project to measure their unbiased binary fraction. This number, when compared to the binary fraction of the presumed parent population can give a first handle on the origin of planetary nebulae. By detecting 27 bona fide central stars in the I band we have found that 30% of our sample have an I band excess between one and a few sigmas, possibly denoting companions brighter than M3-4V and with separations smaller than approximately 1000 AU. By accounting for the undetectable companions, we determine a de-biased binary fraction of 67-78% for all companions at all separations. We compare this number to a main sequence binary fraction of (50+/-4)% determined for spectral types F6V-G2V, appropriate if the progenitors of today's PN central star population is indeed the F6V-G2V stars. The error on our estimate could be between 10 and 30%. We conclude that the central star binary fraction may be larger than expected from the putative parent population. Using the more sensitive J band of a subset of 11 central stars, the binary fraction is 54% for companions brighter than approximately M5-6V and with separations smaller than about 900 AU. De-biassing this number we obtain a binary fraction of 100-107%. The two numbers should be the same and the discrepancy is likely due to small number statistics. We also present an accurately vetted compilation of observed main sequence star magnitudes, colours and masses, which can serve as a reference for future studies. We also present synthetic colours of hot stars as a function of temperature (20-170kK) and gravity (log g= 6-8) for Solar and PG1159 compositions.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, 12 tables, accepted by MNRA

Une aporie de la démocratie: le blocage des politiques publiques par les nouveaux mouvements sociaux.

Cet article examine l'intervention des mouvements sociaux dans le système politique. Tout en portant l'attention sur le cas où les nouveaux mouvements sociaux sont source de blocage des politiques publiques, il tente de montrer comment cette intervention touche à l'équilibre qui s'établit dans toute société démocratique entre l'efficacité du système et sa légitimité. Les auteurs mettent en évidence que cet équilibre est affecté différemment selon le type d'intervention et, tout particulièrement, selon le type de blocage produit par les mouvements. Quatre types de blocages sont distingués, en fonction de la modalité et du résultat de l'intervention. Ces types de blocage dépendent de deux facteurs principaux, à savoir la structure et le fonctionnement de l'Etat, d'un côté, et la composition des acteurs intervenant dans le système, de l'autre. Le blocage des politiques publiques par les mouvements sociaux engendre une aporie centrale pour les démocraties occidentales, notamment pour la démocratie suisse, aporie qui a également des conséquences sur les mouvements eux-mêmes

Nonparametric estimation of concave production technologies by entropic methods

An econometric methodology is developed for nonparametric estimation of concave production technologies. The methodology, bases on the priciple of maximum likelihood, uses entropic distance and concvex programming techniques to estimate production functions.convex programming, production functions, entropy

The effect of a wider initial separation on common envelope binary interaction simulations

We present hydrodynamic simulations of the common envelope binary interaction between a giant star and a compact companion carried out with the adaptive mesh refinement code ENZO and the smooth particle hydrodynamics code PHANTOM. These simulations mimic the parameters of one of the simulations by Passy et al., but assess the impact of a larger, more realistic initial orbital separation on the simulation outcome. We conclude that for both codes the post-common envelope separation is somewhat larger and the amount of unbound mass slightly greater when the initial separation is wide enough that the giant does not yet overflow or just overflows its Roche lobe. PHANTOM has been adapted to the common envelope problem here for the first time and a full comparison with ENZO is presented, including an investigation of convergence as well as energy and angular momentum conservation. We also set our simulations in the context of past simulations. This comparison reveals that it is the expansion of the giant before rapid in-spiral and not spinning up of the star that causes a larger final separation. We also suggest that the large range in unbound mass for different simulations is difficult to explain and may have something to do with simulations that are not fully converged.Comment: Accepted by MNRA