Modelling of parallel dynamics of a pellet-produced plasmoid

The parallel expansion of a dense, pellet-produced plasmoid is modelled with parameters relevant to pellet fuelling experiments in the Wendelstein7-X stellarator. Good agreement is found between the analytical theory and more detailed modelling. In particular, much of the energy deposited in the pellet by the ambient plasma is transferred to the pellet ions by the ambipolar electric field during the expansion. The validity of the hydrodynamic treatment of the plasmoid and the ambient plasma is discussed.

Willingness to Communicate and Second Language Speech Fluency: An Idiodynamic Investigation of Attractor States

Willingness to communicate (WTC) has recently been researched as a dynamic variable, with some investigations viewing it as a complex dynamic system (CDS). One important property associated with CDS is the notion of attractor states, which are characterized by stable patterns of behavior. The present study employed an idiodynamic method to monitor per-second WTC changes with 20 participants during three-minute speaking tasks. Using idiodynamic graphs illustrating the WTC dynamics, patterns of stability were identified as the unit of analysis for WTC attractors. Temporal measures of the utterances that coincided with the WTC attractors were also examined. Results demonstrated that attractors were likely to emerge in both WTC and L2 fluency, and largely depended on two categories of content-related and linguistic-cognitive factors. Data analysis also indicates that WTC and L2 fluency exhibited parallel dynamics in most of the cases. The study’s findings yield pedagogical implications that are discussed at the end.

A Plague on Politics? The COVID Crisis, Expertise, and the Future of Legitimation

Governments rely more and more on experts to manage the increasingly complex problems posed by a growing, diversifying, globalizing world. Surplus technocracy, however, usually comes with deficits of democracy. While especially true in liberal regimes, authoritarian states often face parallel dynamics. Recent trends illustrate how technocratic encroachment on civil society’s prerogatives can provoke populist backlash. Such cycles can build toward crises by eroding the legitimacy citizens invest in regimes. Surprisingly, by throwing both the need for and limits of expertise into sharp relief, the politics of COVID-19 create a novel opportunity to disrupt these trends. We assess how this opportunity may be unfolding in two crucial cases, the United States and China, and, more briefly, South Korea. We conclude by sketching some theoretical considerations to guide a geographically expanded and temporally extended research agenda on this important opportunity to slow or reverse a trend plaguing modern governance.

authenticity as an inarticulate ideal in the contemporary discourse of good childhoods

This paper consists of an initial investigation about the meaning of a good childhood following the ethical ideal of authenticity. In this introduction to a philosophy of childhood and authenticity, the central theme is to investigate how the authenticity ideal is already presupposed in the contemporary discourse on what constitutes a good childhood. In the emerging field of philosophy of childhood, the capacities of children for agency, autonomy, and committing and the fundamental role of parents in guaranteeing possibilities to exercise them are being increasingly highlighted, together with a discourse that there are some intrinsic goods of childhood. These developments parallel contemporary reconstructions of authenticity as an ethical ideal. Current debates emphasize the importance of a person finding, creating and constructing their originality, and how to realize it. At the same time, this search must recognize demands emanating from something more than human desires: from one’s culture and community. The parallel dynamics between these two discourses - children-parent and individual-society - point to a direction that applying the concept of authenticity to the construction of novel interpretations and practices of a good childhood can bring fruitful results. After examining such parallels, some of these practices that emerge from the analysis of good childhoods as authentic childhood are pointed out, such as the importance of cultivating children’s moments of caring and committing, and the development of personal projects. The paper concludes by exploring some limitations of the applied methodology and how it can be a strength in future research on this topic.

Theory of Nonlinear Fourier Analysis: The Construction of Quasiperiodic Fourier Series for Nonlinear Wave Motion

I give a description of nonlinear water wave dynamics using a recently discovered tool of mathematical physics I call nonlinear Fourier analysis (NLFA). This method is based upon and is an application of a theorem due to Baker [1897, 1907] and Mumford [1984] in the field of algebraic geometry and from additional sources by the author [Osborne, 2010, 2018, 2019]. The theory begins with the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation, a two dimensional generalization of the Korteweg-deVries (KdV) equation: Here the NLFA method is derived from the complete integrability of the equation by finite gap theory or the inverse scattering transform for periodic/quasiperiodic boundary conditions. I first show, for a one-dimensional, plane wave solution, that the KP equation can be rotated to a solution of the KdV equation, where the coefficients of KdV are now functions of the rotation angle. I then show how the rotated KdV equation can be used to compute the spectral solutions of the KP equation itself. Finally, I write the spectral solutions of the KP equation as a finite gap solution in terms of Riemann theta functions. By virtue of the fact that I am able to write a theta function formulation of the KP equation, it is clear that the wave dynamics lie on tori and constitute parallel dynamics on the tori in the integrable cases and non-parallel dynamics on the tori for certain perturbed quasi-integrable cases. Therefore, we are dealing with a Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser KAM theory for nonlinear partial differential wave equations. The nonlinear Fourier series have particular nonlinear Fourier modes, including: sine waves, Stokes waves and solitons. Indeed the theoretical formulation I have developed is a kind of exact two-dimensional “coherent wave turbulence” or “integrable wave turbulence” for the KP equation, for which the Stokes waves and solitons are the coherent structures. I discuss how NLFA provides a number of new tools that apply to a wide range of problems in offshore engineering and coastal dynamics: This includes nonlinear Fourier space and time series analysis, nonlinear Fourier wave field analysis, a nonlinear random phase approximation, the study of nonlinear coherent functions and nonlinear bi and tri spectral analysis.

Effects of collisions on impurity transport driven by electrostatic modes

The turbulence-induced quasi-linear particle flux of a highly charged, collisional impurity species is calculated from the electrostatic gyrokinetic equation including collisions with the bulk ions and the impurities themselves. The equation is solved by an expansion in powers of the impurity charge number $Z$ . In this formalism, the collision operator only affects the impurity flux through the dynamics of the impurities in the direction parallel to the magnetic field. At reactor-relevant collisionality, the parallel dynamics is dominated by the parallel electric field, and collisions have a minor effect on the turbulent particle flux of highly charged, collisional impurities.

Theoretical Reflection of the Problems of Correlation of Social Ideals and Political Interests

The article explores the theoretical reflection of the ratio of social ideals and political interests. The main approaches to the motivation of political activity and ideas about the most perfect social systemare highlighted. The scientific heritage of K. Marx and K. Mannheim is analyzed in detail on this issue and it is determined that large social groups (classes) present their interests in the form of ideals, or,in other words, social values and ideals are a concentrated expression (incl. and political) class interests. It is proved that ideas about social ideals and political interests have always been determined historically, being formed under the direct influence of the most important events in the international arena and the main domestic political trends. Thus, one can speak not only about theinterdependence of socio-political processes and knowledge about them, when theoretical ideas about society are a kind of reflection of its state and structure, and on the other hand, social relations appear to be objective knowledge about them (i.e., an empirical embodiment of ideas and concepts), but also about the synchronized dynamics of the evolution of social theory and historical practice, when scientific ideas develop in parallel with real social changes, creating two parallel dynamics – the intellectual and factual.