Fear of a Multilingual America? Language and National Identity in the United States

In the contemporary debate on language and national identity in the US, those who are in favor of a constitutional amendment declaring English the offi cial language of the country believe that speaking the same tongue is crucial for the political and cultural unity of the nation. Those who are against the amendment claim that dictating by law the linguistic Americanization of immigrants is incompatible with American multiculturalism. Both sides ground their ideas in the language ideology and politics of the Founders and interpret in opposing ways the absence of a statement on language in the Constitution. What Americans believed about the importance of a national language for the new nation at the turn of the eighteenth century still infl uences what Americans think now and can explain why, for example, the language divide does not simply run along party lines. Yet the Founders\u2019 attitudes towards language were contradictory, as they combined descriptivism and prescriptivism . This article investigates writings by intellectuals and politicians who were instrumental in the nation-making process of the early American Republic, such as Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush and Noah Webster. These writings show the complexity of the ideas coalescing in the mythology of American English which formed after the American Revolution and spread in nineteenth-century United States

On the Virtual Element Method for Topology Optimization on polygonal meshes: a numerical study

It is well known that the solution of topology optimization problems may be affected both by the geometric properties of the computational mesh, which can steer the minimization process towards local (and non-physical) minima, and by the accuracy of the method employed to discretize the underlying differential problem, which may not be able to correctly capture the physics of the problem. In light of the above remarks, in this paper we consider polygonal meshes and employ the virtual element method (VEM) to solve two classes of paradigmatic topology optimization problems, one governed by nearly-incompressible and compressible linear elasticity and the other by Stokes equations. Several numerical results show the virtues of our polygonal VEM based approach with respect to more standard methods

Flow induced crystallisation of penetrable particles

For a system of Brownian particles interacting via a soft exponential potential we investigate the interaction between equilibrium crystallisation and spatially varying shear flow. For thermodynamic state points within the liquid part of the phase diagram, but close to the crystallisation phase boundary, we observe that imposing a Poiseuille flow can induce nonequilibrium crystalline ordering in regions of low shear gradient. The physical mechanism responsible for this phenomenon is shear-induced particle migration, which causes particles to drift preferentially towards the center of the flow channel, thus increasing the local density in the channel center. The method employed is classical dynamical density functional theory

Mean first passage time of active Brownian particle in one dimension

We investigate the mean first passage time of an active Brownian particle in one dimension using numerical simulations. The activity in one dimension is modelled as a two state model; the particle moves with a constant propulsion strength but its orientation switches from one state to other as in a random telegraphic process. We study the influence of a finite resetting rate r on the mean first passage time to a fixed target of a single free active Brownian particle and map this result using an effective diffusion process. As in the case of a passive Brownian particle, we can find an optimal resetting rate r* for an active Brownian particle for which the target is found with the minimum average time. In the case of the presence of an external potential, we find good agreement between the theory and numerical simulations using an effective potential approach

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Erosión por contracción y por estribo en puentes aliviadores en valle de inundación

En el presente trabajo se analiza, en forma experimental, la interrelación existente entre los distintos tipos de erosión que se producen en puentes aliviadores, y sus vinculaciones con los parámetros característicos del escurrimiento. A tales fines se llevó a cabo una secuencia de ensayos de laboratorio, destinados especialmente a evaluar las modificaciones que sufre la distribución de caudales como consecuencia del desarrollo de la erosión por estribo, y la incidencia que ello tiene sobre la erosión por contracción. Los resultados alcanzados demuestran que la reducción del porcentaje de caudal, en la zona no afectada por la hoya de erosión local, es función de la profundidad de socavación debida a la presencia del estribo. Sobre esta base se propone una secuencia de cálculo de las erosiones totales en un puente aliviador en valle de inundación, la cual reproduce adecuadamente valores medidos en prototipo durante la ocurrencia de una crecida extraordinaria

Local phase transitions in driven colloidal suspensions

Using dynamical density functional theory and Brownian dynamics simulations, we investigate the influence of a driven tracer particle on the density distribution of a colloidal suspension at a thermodynamic state point close to the liquid side of the binodal. In bulk systems, we find that a localised region of the colloid-poor phase, a ‘cavitation bubble’, forms behind the moving tracer. The extent of the cavitation bubble is investigated as a function of both the size and velocity of the tracer. The addition of a confining boundary enables us to investigate the interaction between the local phase instability at the substrate and that at the particle surface. When both the substrate and tracer interact repulsively with the colloids we observe the formation of a colloid-poor bridge between the substrate and the tracer. When a shear flow is applied parallel to the substrate the bridge becomes distorted and, at sufficiently high shear-rates, disconnects from the substrate to form a cavitation bubble

Un instrumento de apoyo al emprendedurismo en Argentina: el facilitador de flujos de proyectos

Trabajo presentado al XIII Seminario Latino-Iberoamericano de Gestión Tecnológica: "Innovación para el desarrollo sostenible" celebrado en Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) del 25 al 27 de Noviembre 2009.El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo caracterizar a un nuevo actor que brinde apoyo a emprendedores con propuestas de generación de empresas de base tecnológicas (EBTs) surgidas desde las instituciones de Ciencia y Tecnología en Argentina. Para ello, se realizaron entrevistas a actores calificados provenientes de los distintos entornos del sistema argentino de innovación y de otros países iberoamericanos así como un taller con representantes de organismos de Vinculación Tecnológica de universidades argentinas. Entre los entrevistados se incluyeron especialistas provenientes de oficinas de vinculación de universidades y centros de investigación, incubadoras de empresas, bancos, fondos de inversión de riesgo, consultores privados, y creadores de EBTs. Para sistematizar las entrevistas se estableció un cuestionario con un conjunto de preguntas, algunas cerradas y otras abiertas. Como resultados se presentan los principales condicionantes identificados que frenan el surgimiento de EBTs académicas, una breve caracterización de servicios y/o capacidades disponibles para superarlos en los organismos actuales y las características básicas propuestas para el nuevo actor. Finalmente se incluyen conclusiones sobre las posibilidades de actuación del nuevo actor, su conformación y condicionantes sobre los que podrá actuar con éxito y los que no, así como su pertenencia y/o su relación con los actuales actores del sistema de innovación.Peer reviewe