Have you ever thought about German culture? Do you want to know some cultural differences between colleges in Germany and the US? Are the grades any different? How are the teachers in Germany? The classes? College life? Dorms? Come to Kaffeestunde (Hour of Coffee) to hear about Germany's culture! Refreshments will be provided.

Hosted by the German Department and sponsored by the Cultural Diversity Festival.

Abstract: "Linguists have been teaching the general public for several decades now that traditional conceptions of "bad" versus "good" grammar are not based on scientific argumentation, but certain fashions laid down by assorted thinkers mostly in the eighteenth century. However, the public remains convinced that most speakers of English go about speaking it "wrong." In this talk, I try to present the linguist's perspective in a new way, showing that while all people must learn standard grammar for public purposes, nonstandard grammar is distinct, but not logically mistaken."

In the wake of the triple disasters of March 11, 2011 which devastated the Tohoku region of Japan with a massive earthquake, an enormous set of tsunami, and the catastrophic failure of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor, both Japanese and foreign observers struggled to make sense of these events.  Bestor examines some ways in which Japanese culture frames disasters, and based on fieldwork in Tohoku in 2011 and 2012, how local meaning-making unfolds.

This event is free, open to the public, and sponsored in part by:  The Department of Anthropology, Student Government Association, and the Japan/America Society of Kentucky.

In the wake of the triple disasters of March 11, 2011 which devastated the Tohoku region of Japan with a massive earthquake, an enormous set of tsunami, and the catastrophic failure of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor, both Japanese and foreign observers struggled to make sense of these events.  Bestor examines some ways in which Japanese culture frames disasters, and based on fieldwork in Tohoku in 2011 and 2012, how local meaning-making unfolds.

This event is free, open to the public, and sponsored in part by:  The Department of Anthropology, Student Government Association, and the Japan/America Society of Kentucky

Title:  On the ground state of the magnetic Laplacian in corner domains

Abstract:  I will present recent results about the first eigenvalue of the magnetic Laplacian in general 3D-corner domains with Neumann boundary condition in the semi-classical limit.  The use of singular chains show that the asymptotics of the first eigenvalue is governed by a hierarchy of model problems on the tangent cones of the domain. We provide estimations of the remainder depending on the geometry and the variations of the magnetic field. This is a joint work with V. Bonnaillie-Nol and M. Dauge.

Title:  Compressible Navier-Stokes equations with temperature dependent dissipation

Abstract:  From its physical origin, the viscosity and heat conductivity coe!cients in compressible fluids depend on absolute temperature through power laws. The mathematical theory on the well-posedness and regularity on this setting is widely open. I will report some recent progress on this direction, with emphasis on the lower bound of temperature, and global existence of solutions in one or multiple dimensions. The relation between thermodynamics laws and Naiver-Stokes equations will also be discussed. This talk is based on joint works with Weizhe Zhang.