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Central Ideas (central + idea)
Selected AbstractsOn the optimum support size in meshfree methods: A variational adaptivity approach with maximum-entropy approximantsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 7 2010Adrian Rosolen Abstract We present a method for the automatic adaption of the support size of meshfree basis functions in the context of the numerical approximation of boundary value problems stemming from a minimum principle. The method is based on a variational approach, and the central idea is that the variational principle selects both the discretized physical fields and the discretization parameters, here those defining the support size of each basis function. We consider local maximum-entropy approximation schemes, which exhibit smooth basis functions with respect to both space and the discretization parameters (the node location and the locality parameters). We illustrate by the Poisson, linear and non-linear elasticity problems the effectivity of the method, which produces very accurate solutions with very coarse discretizations and finds unexpected patterns of the support size of the shape functions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] "[U]NITED AND ACTUATED BY SOME COMMON IMPULSE OF PASSION"1: CHALLENGING THE DISPERSAL CONSENSUS IN AMERICAN HOUSING POLICY RESEARCHJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2008DAVID IMBROSCIO ABSTRACT: A large and influential group of American scholars studying urban and low-income housing policy have coalesced around the central idea that the best way to ameliorate the plague of urban poverty in the United States is to disperse (or deconcentrate) the urban poor into wealthier (usually outlying suburban) neighborhoods. This article refers to this group of scholars as the Dispersal Consensus (or DC for short). It finds that the DC's zeal to promote dispersal policies leads many of its members to engage in suspect and problematic practices, both in their research and policy prescription efforts. Such findings suggest that the DC's near hegemonic influence over the academic discourse of American urban and low-income housing policy should be challenged. This challenge will help stimulate a more open and productive debate regarding how best to ameliorate urban poverty (and related social problems) in the United States. [source] Accelerating the coarse time-stepper for a lattice Boltzmann modelPROCEEDINGS IN APPLIED MATHEMATICS & MECHANICS, Issue 1 2007Christophe Vandekerckhove The equation-free framework for multiscale computing is built around the central idea of a coarse time-stepper, which is an approximate time integrator for the macroscopic variables when only a microscopic simulator is available. In a previous paper, we studied the accuracy and stability of the coarse time-stepper when the microscopic simulator is a lattice Boltzmann model for one-dimensional diffusion. In this paper, we rely on these results to show how the coarse time-stepper can be accelerated using the recently proposed teleprojective method or the multistep state extrapolation method. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Time to Ditch the Natural Rate?THE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 246 2003A. J. Hagger We urge macroeconomists to abandon the ,natural rate' as an analytical device on the ground that it has become a source of great and growing confusion. But we press them to recognise that it has great potential as a policy tool provided we grasp the central idea of a hypothetical unemployment rate, which can be compared with the actual unemployment rate. We integrate three hypothetical unemployment rates with the help of an exploratory macro model and then present a quarterly series for each for Australia for the period 1986(2) to 1997(2). We explain how such series could help in policy-making. [source] ,A Literature of Substitution': Vicarious Sacrifice in the Writings of Gertrud Von Le FortGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 2 2000Helena M. Saward Vicarious sacrifice and substitution are among the central ideas to emerge in Gertrud von le Fort's prose and verse after her conversion to Catholicism in 1926. The doctrine plays an important thematic role in her writing, but this article will demonstrate how le Fort incorporates its theological ramifications into her fiction as a means of developing a ,sacramental realism' within which divine grace is shown to be at work. A precedent for this is to be found in many writings from the French literary renouveau catholique, thus a treatment of Paul Claudel's drama L'Annonce faite a` Marie (1910) will elucidate an analysis of le Fort's use of the doctrine of substitution, taking her inner emigration Novelle Die Abberufung der Jungfrau von Barby (1940) as a sample text. An appreciation of the workings of substitution is prerequisite to a reading of le Fort's creative work, particularly during her inner emigration in the Third Reich, and to an assessment of her overall contribution to twentieth-century German literature. [source] Personhood and dementia: revisiting Tom Kitwood's ideasINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLDER PEOPLE NURSING, Issue 1 2008Dip N, Dip N Ed, Jan Dewing BSc Person-centred care is often cited as an aim of gerontological nursing and promotion of personhood is said to be the basis for person-centred care. As such, it forms a cornerstone value for many gerontological nurses, particularly those working in dementia care. Tom Kitwood's ideas and definition of personhood are widely referred to in the literature and used in the dementia care field. More recently, there is a move to critique and partially reject Kitwood's ideas on personhood. This paper has three aims: (i) to explore some central ideas around key theories of personhood (ii) to critique Kitwood's work on personhood. (iii) To summarize current critiques of Kitwood's ideas and provide a response that outlines why Kitwoods' ideas are still relevant. It is suggested many critiques ignore Kitwoods' ultimate purpose; that of moral concern for ,others'. However, the main criticism put forward in this paper is that, rather than completely rejecting personhood theories, Kitwood locates his work on what it means to be a person within a traditional Cartesian personhood framework, albeit from a revised or pragmatic viewpoint. Finally, it is suggested that definitions of persons and personhood need to take account of the body and time (corporeality and temporality) and gerontological nursing may want to reassess how much allegiance is given to basing nursing frameworks on the concept of personhood. [source] Bertha Harmer's 1922 textbook , The Principles and Practice of Nursing: clinical nursing from an historical perspectiveJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 19 2009Geertje Boschma Aims and objectives., This study analyses the origins of a widely used textbook of nursing, commonly utilised in North American Schools of Nursing since 1922, and eventually worldwide. A biography of its first author, Bertha Harmer, is also included. Background., Tracing central ideas of nursing throughout the various editions, the book provides a commentary on the cultural,historical context of nursing and reveals how nursing leaders conceptualised the day-to-day knowledge base nurses would need for their practice. Design and methods., Historical analysis. Results., The core nursing concept of ,human needs' was central to Harmer's work and thinking. Conclusions., Its continuous development by her and her later co-author, Virginia Henderson, reflected broader changes in nursing that were central to the construction of nursing as hospital-based care during the twentieth century. Relevance to clinical practice and conclusion., Renewal of nursing practice exists by the virtue of nurses' collective ability to question continuously and critically, the foundations of their practice. Historical analysis of core nursing concepts is one approach to further such critique. [source] Pragmatism, Postmodernism, and Global CitizenshipMETAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 1-2 2004Larry A. Hickman Abstract: The founders of American pragmatism proposed what they regarded as a radical alternative to the philosophical methods and doctrines of their predecessors and contemporaries. Although their central ideas have been understood and applied in some quarters, there remain other areas within which they have been neither appreciated nor appropriated. One of the more pressing of these areas locates a set of problems of knowledge and valuation related to global citizenship. This essay attempts to demonstrate that classical American pragmatism, because its methods are modeled on successes in the technosciences, offers a set of tools for fostering global citizenship that are more effective than the tools of some of its alternatives. First, pragmatism claims to discover a strain of human commonality that trumps the radical postmodernist emphasis on difference and discontinuity. Second, when pragmatism's theory of truth is coupled with its moderate version of cultural relativism, the more skeptical postmodernist version known as "cognitive" relativism is undercut. [source] Green Constitutionalism: The Constitutional Protection of Future GenerationsRATIO JURIS, Issue 3 2007KRISTIAN SKAGEN EKELI The proposal I wish to elaborate can be termed the posterity provision, and it has both substantive and procedural elements. The aim of this constitutional provision is twofold. The first is to encourage state authorities to make more future-oriented deliberations and decisions. The second is to create more public awareness and improve the process of public deliberation about issues affecting near and remote future generations. It is argued that a good case can be made for the proposed reforms compared with alternative substantive constitutional environmental provisions found in existing constitutions and in the literature on legal and political theory. The main reason for this is that the proposed law constitutes a better and more adequate basis for judicial enforcement than the alternatives, which tend to be very vague or unclear. In this connection, I contend that there are both epistemological and moral reasons for introducing constitutional provisions that focus on the protection of critical natural resources essential for meeting the basic physiological needs of future people. It is also argued that the posterity provision can be defended on the basis of central ideas and ideals in recent theory of deliberative democracy. [source] | ||||||||||||||||